Revolution and History in Walter Benjamin

Name: Revolution and History in Walter Benjamin
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

This book places Benjamin\u2019s writing on revolution in the context of his conception of historical knowledge. The fundamental problem that faces any analysis of Benjamin\u2019s approach to revolution is that he deploys notions that belong to the domain of individual experience. His theory of modernity with its emphasis on the disintegration of collective experience further aggravates the problem. Benjamin himself understood the problem of revolution to be primarily that of the conceptualization of collective experience (its possibility and sites) under the conditions of modern bourgeois society. The novelty of his approach to revolution lies in the fact that he directly connects it with historical experience. Benjamin\u2019s conception of revolution thus constitutes an integral part of his distinctive theory of historical knowledge, which is also essentially a theory of experience. Through a detailed study of Benjamin\u2019s writings on the topics of the child and the dream, and a.