Contents

pp.：  7 – 8

Volume Foreword

pp.：  9 – 10

Acknowledgments

pp.：  11 – 12

Bibliographical Note

pp.：  13 – 14

Preface

pp.：  15 – 18

Introduction. Melancholy, Hope, Redemption

pp.：  19 – 30

Chapter One. Benjamin's Philosophy of History: The Messianic Is Now

pp.：  31 – 68

Introduction

pp.：  31 – 32

1. The Notion of 'Weak Messianic Power' in On the Concept of History

pp.：  33 – 36

2. Redemption and 'Rejuvenation' of the Past

pp.：  37 – 60

2.1. Introduction

pp.：  37 – 38

2.2. The Dialectical Image and Its Ethical-Political Relevance

pp.：  39 – 45

2.3. Renewed Legibility and Redemption

pp.：  46 – 49

2.4. The Relation between Benjamin's Materialism and His Jewish Messianism

pp.：  50 – 60

Conclusion

pp.：  61 – 68

Chapter Two. The Kafka-essays and The Origin of German Tragic Drama: On Failure and the Limits of Human Understanding

pp.：  69 – 112

Introduction

pp.：  69 – 69

1. Franz Kafka, the Unknowability of the Divine and the Decline of Experience

pp.：  70 – 95

1.1. Introduction

pp.：  70 – 73

1.2. The Kafka-Essay and the 'Inaccessibility of Doctrine'

pp.：  74 – 76

II.I.3. Kafka's Last Will and Shame

pp.：  77 – 80

1.4. The Kafka-Letter and the Decay of Tradition

pp.：  81 – 88

1.5. The Conscious Experience and Benjamin's Critique of Modernity

pp.：  89 – 95

2. The Origin of German Tragic Drama and the 'Empty World' of the Baroque

pp.：  96 – 112

2.1. Presentation of the Subject Matter

pp.：  96 – 106

2.2. Trauerspiel and Allegory

pp.：  107 – 112

Chapter Three. The 'Will to Allegory' and the 'Distortion' of Truth in History

pp.：  113 – 152

Introduction

pp.：  113 – 115

1. Benjamin's Iconography

pp.：  116 – 130

1.1. Benjamin and Alois Rieglwrite indexwrite {98:Riegl, Alois}

pp.：  116 – 118

1.2. Benjamin and Aby Warburg: The Survival of Ancient Gods in 'an Unsuitable, Indeed Hostile, Environment'

pp.：  119 – 123

1.3. Conflicts and Compromises: The Timeless 'Hybridity' of Logos and Magic

pp.：  124 – 130

2. The 'Distortion' of Truth in History

pp.：  131 – 151

2.1. Kafka, the Trauerspiel and the Messianic

pp.：  131 – 141

2.2. The Relation between Benjamin's Messianism and His Historical Analyses

pp.：  142 – 144

2.3. A Case in Point: Technological Reproducibility

pp.：  145 – 151

Conclusion

pp.：  152 – 152

Appendix. Relational 'Purity,' the Collector and the Fl›neur

pp.：  153 – 168

Introduction. The Concept of Purity

pp.：  153 – 158

1. The 'Representational Impulse' of Truth and the Movement of the Absolute

pp.：  159 – 162

2. The Collector and the Fl›neur

pp.：  163 – 168

Conclusion. Walter Benjamin and Joseph Roth

pp.：  169 – 172

Bibliography

pp.：  173 – 182

Essays by Walter Benjamin

pp.：  173 – 174

Books by Walter Benjamin

pp.：  175 – 174

Letters from/to Walter Benjamin

pp.：  175 – 174

Other Sources (Selection)

pp.：  175 – 182

Index of Names

pp.：  183 – 188