E-Book Overview
Collected essays consider points of affinity and friction between Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger.
Despite being contemporaries, Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger never directly engaged with one another. Yet, Hannah Arendt, who knew both men, pointed out common ground between the two. Both were concerned with the destruction of metaphysics, the development of a new way of reading and understanding literature and art, and the formulation of radical theories about time and history. On the other hand, their life trajectories and political commitments were radically different. In a 1930 letter, Benjamin told a friend that he had been reading Heidegger and that if the two were to engage with one another, “sparks will fly.” Acknowledging both their affinities and points of conflict, this volume stages that confrontation, focusing in particular on temporality, Romanticism, and politics in their work.
Andrew Benjamin is Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Thought at Monash University, Australia and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Kingston University, London. He is the author of several books, including Working with Walter Benjamin: Recovering a Political Philosophy. Dimitris Vardoulakis is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. He is the author of Sovereignty and Its Other: Toward the Dejustification of Violence.
E-Book Content
Sparks Will Fly
SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy Dennis J. Schmidt, editor
Sparks Will Fly Benjamin and Heidegger
Edited by
Andrew Benjamin and Dimitris Vardoulakis
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2015 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Jenn Bennett Marketing, Kate Seburyamo Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sparks will fly : Benjamin and Heidegger / edited by Andrew Benjamin and Dimitris Vardoulakis. pages cm. — (SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-5505-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) — EISBN 978-1-4384-5506-8 (ebook) 1. Benjamin, Walter, 1892–1940. 2. Heidegger, Martin, 1889–1976. I. Benjamin, Andrew E. II. Vardoulakis, Dimitris. B3209.B584S635 2015 193—dc23 2014012475 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Abbreviations
vii
Introduction: “Sparks Will Fly” Andrew Benjamin and Dimitris Vardoulakis
xi
Part I. Knowledge ONE
TWO
Entanglement—Of Benjamin with Heidegger Peter Fenves Critique and the Thing: Benjamin and Heidegger Gerhard Richter
3
27
Part II. Experience THREE
FOUR
Stimmung: Heidegger and Benjamin Ilit Ferber
67
Commodity Fetishism and the Gaze A. Kiarina Kordela
95
Part III. Time FIVE
Monad and Time: Reading Leibniz with Heidegger and Benjamin Paula Schwebel
123
vi
CONTENTS
SIX
Time and Task: Benjamin and Heidegger Showing the Present Andrew Benjamin
145
Part IV. Hölderlin SEVEN
EIGHT
Who Was Friedrich Hölderlin? Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, and the Poet Antonia Egel
177
Sobriety, Intoxication, Hyperbology: Benjamin and Heidegger Reading Hölderlin Joanna Hodge
189