Walter Benjamin and Romanticism

This text explores the relationship between Walter Benjamin´s literary and philosophical work and the tradition of German Romanticism, as well as Holderlin and Goethe. Through a detailed and scholarly analysis of the major texts, the book explores the endurance of Benjamin´s relationship to Romanticism, the residual presence of Romantic Goethean and Holderlinian motifs in Benjamin´s subsequent writings and how Benjamin´s understanding of the relationship between criticism and Romanticism can still play a vital role in contemporary philosophical and literary practice.Contributors include Andrew Benjamin, Josh Cohen, David Ferris, Beatrice Hanssen, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Charlie Louth, Bettine Menke, Winfried Menninghaus, Anthony Phelan and Sigrid Weigel.
Contents: Walter Benjamin and the Early Romantics: introduction to Walter Benjamin´s "The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism"; Walter Benjamin´s Exposition of the Romantic Theory of Reflection; the Sober Absolute - On Benjamin and the Early Romantics; Fortgang and Zusammenhang - Walter Benjamin and the Romantic Novel; However One Calls Into the Forest - Echoes of Translation; Unfolding - Reading After Romanticism; The Absolute as Translatability - Working Through Walter Benjamin on Language; Benjamin, Romanticism, and the Foundations of Critical Theory. Beyond Early Romanticism - Benjamin, H lderlin, Goethe: "Dichtermut" and "Bl digkeit" - Two Poems by Friedrich H lderlin, interpreted by Walter Benjamin and Beatrice Hanssen; Poetry´s Courage; Benjamin´s Affinity - Goethe, the Romantics, and the Pure Problem of Criticism; The Artwork as Breach of a Beyond - On the Dialectic of Divine and Human Order in Walter Benjamin´s "Goethe´s Elective Affinities".