Overview
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is now generally recognised as one of the most original and influential thinkers of this century. The conflicts and conjunctions between Benjamin's Marxism and his messianic Judaism, between his fascination for surrealism and his explorations of the Cabbala, between the philosopher of language and the ever-observant flaneur on the streets of Berlin or Paris - all these have inspired a wealth of interpretations and critical studies. Widely acclaimed in Germany, Momme Brodersen's Walter Benjamin is the most comprehensive and illuminating biography of Benjamin ever published. Not only does Brodersen provide a fuller and more coherent account of Benjamin's nomadic career than has any previous scholar, he also demonstrates the fallacy of the popular, romanticised notion of his life as the sorrowful progression of a melancholic personality. The only real tragedy, he argues, was Benjamin's suicide at Portbou on the Franco-Spanish border in 1940. Using previously unavailable material, Brodersen pays particular attention to Benjamin's childhood in Berlin, to his conflicts with his bourgeois, Jewish family, his activities in the German Youth Movement, and the formative, irreconcilable influences of idealism, socialism and Zionism. He gives an exceptionally vivid picture of Benjamin's life during the Weimar Republic, of his success as a literary critic and his work as a translator and radio journalist, as well as of his friendships and love affairs. Finally, he follows Benjamin's harrowing journey through exile, internment and flight, and for the first time unravels the mysteries surrounding his death. At the same time, Brodersen provides a fresh and lucid presentation of Benjamin's written work, and of the extraordinary range of his ideas and enthusiasms.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Walter Benjamin's posthumous influence as philosopher and critic has grown since his suicide in 1940, when it appeared that his escape from France into Spain would end with deportation to a concentration camp. Brodersen's biography, awkwardly and sometimes impenetrably translated and edited, will do Benjamin's established reputation no harm while doing little to make his ideas more accessible. Born in Berlin in 1892, Benjamin outlasted WWI as a graduate student but was denied the essential postdoctoral Habilitation, which would have opened doors to an academic post. He made his way instead as a freelance critic. A working wife (from whom he was later divorced) and an allowance reluctantly continued by his father, a merchant, kept him going when he made little from his writings, which nevertheless brought him increasing respect from his peers, despite the pervasive anti-Semitism of his time. Expecting recognition to come slowly, he wrote wryly of his intellectual "wine cellar." In his lifetime, respect for his theories on the interdependence of language, politics and literature arose largely from his periodical contributions, some of them published after his death. Although Brodersen notes in a preface that he was refused access to documents by the writer's estate, the most valuable dimension of his book may be 187 reproductions of documents and pictures (captions alone seen by PW) that illuminate Benjamin's career and flesh out the inadequate text. While the biography furnishes some clues about the rivalries in perceptions and personalities within the German intelligentsia between the wars, extracting them is hard going. (Nov.)Library Journal
The ever-growing reputation of distinguished German Jewish literary and cultural critic Benjamin can be measured in shelf space. Brodersen's work is the third scholarly Benjamin biography in the last five years to reach the American market (the others are John McCole's Walter Benjamin & the Antinomies of Tradition, Cornell Univ., 1993, and Bernd Witte's Walter Benjamin: An Intellectual Biography, Wayne State Univ., 1991), and no collection with a section on Benjamin can afford to be without any of them. Brodersen (German literature and cultural history, Univ. of Palermo) treats Benjamin's life and times in early 20th century Germany, France, Russia, and Switzerland in greater detail than does Witte, though the latter devotes more attention to Benjamin's works. Clearly written, well translated, and handsomely laid out with nearly 200 illustrations, the current volume will be welcomed by scholars and students alike.-Michael T. O'Pecko, Towson State Univ., Md.Kirkus Reviews
An even-handed account of the great literary critic's unlucky life, from his birth into Berlin's Jewish upper middle class to his suicide while in flight from the Nazis.Though he was little known during his lifetime (18921940), Walter Benjamin has emerged since the 1960s as one of the century's preeminent literary critics. The reasons for his obscurity make him a good subject for a biography. He was an eccentric and highly original thinker whose work was rejected by the rigid academic establishment of his time. He was a German Jew whose adult life coincided with the rise of fascism. And his major writings, not all of which are available in English (though an effort to publish them is now underway—see Benjamin Walter, p. 1435), remain fraught with difficulties. Brodersen's life of Benjamin, which supersedes all previous works in both scope and authority, is in large part an intellectual biography. Its strength lies in the way he relates Benjamin's life (unlucky in love, failed academic aspirations, and an antifascist outsider) to his literary writings. Benjamin's subtle theories are lucidly explained by the author, who teaches German literature and cultural history in Italy at the University of Palermo. In addition, his presentation of Benjamin's Berlin childhood breaks fresh ground in clarifying the foundations of his thought, especially with regard to his relationship to Judaism. And not least of all, Brodersen adds a tantalizing element of mystery when he writes this anti-acknowledgment: "My work received no support whatsoever from the trustees of the Benjamin estate in Frankfurt. My numerous requests for information and access to certain documents were all flatly refused." He does not speculate on the archivists' motives for concealing the materials in their care.
Brodersen's book is the best life of Benjamin we have and the best we are likely to have, until the archives are finally opened to scholars and biographers.