Benjamin-Handbuch: Leben, Werk, Wirkung by Burkhard LindnerArchiv, Zitat, Nachleben: Die Medien bei Walter Benjamin und das Medium Benjamin by Amália Kerekes, Nicolas Pethes, Peter Plener

Abstract

MLR, I02.4, 2007 I I9I keeping with thebook's stated aim of appealing toan audience whose interestsextend beyond the cinema. In addition there is a very fullbibliography which, togetherwith an index of Jewish artists and administrators working in theGerman and Austrian film industry up to 1933, filmhistorians will find indispensable. UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK SEAN ALLAN Benjamin-Handbuch: Leben- Werk- Wirkung. Ed. by BURKHARDLINDNER. Stutt gart:Metzler. 2oo6. xiii+720pp. ?64.95. ISBN 978-3-476-oi985-I. Archiv- Zitat- Nachleben: Die Medien beiWalter Benjamin und dasMedium Ben jamin. Ed. by AMALIA KEREKES, NICOLAS PETHES, and PETER PLENER. (Bu dapester Studien zur Literaturwissenschaft, 7) Bern and Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang. 2005. 2IO pp. SwF 57; 639. ISBN 978-3-631-53834-0. Walter Benjamin's popularity as a thinker, writer, and critic continues unabated across the humanities; over the past fewyears this has resulted, alongside the usual flood ofmonographs and articles, in a number ofmore general studies and introductions which have attempted to take stock of Benjamin's work and legacy.The Benjamin Handbuch marks themost ambitious and expansive of such projects; conceived as a combination of companion, referencework, and introduction, itsaim is to transcend Benjamin's appropriation by individual disciplines and to re-emphasize the manifold concerns and trajectories of hiswritings. This critical agenda is reflected in theHandbuch's overall structure: the articles, written by scholars both German and international, are divided into two rather uneven parts. The first,headed 'Leben, Werk, Wirkung', takes up around sixty pages and provides brief outlines of Benjamin's life,of his reception by different movements and disciplines, and of editions, archives, and bibliographical tools. The second part, broadly entitled 'Analysen', spans the remaining 6oo pages and ex plores Benjamin's texts under five different rubrics: 'Intellektuelle Freundschaft'; 'Messianismus, Asthetik, Politik'; 'Literaturkritik,Avantgarde, Medien, Publizistik'; 'Dichtungsanalyse und Autorbild'; and 'Sprachphilosophie; literarisches und auto biographisches Schreiben'. These subsections each contain between three and four teen articles which focus either on individual texts or on more general themes and configurations. As thismacrostructure indicates, the goal of theHandbuch isnot, as theeditor stresses, to insertBenjamin's thought into a rigid biographical chronology, or to reassert the commonplace distinction between early, theologically oriented texts and laterpolitical writings. Neither, however, does theHandbuch follow the structure of theGesammelte Schriften,whose volumes divide Benjamin's writings according to formal criteria such as textual genre and state of completion. As the editor argues, Benjamin's works are too complex, his thought-processes and intellectual interests both too diverse and too interconnected, to be constructively subsumed under such external categories. The Handbuch proposes instead a different approach: to revisit Benjamin's writings by focusing closely on individual textsor thematic configurations. The best articles in the collection offeran introduction for the interested novice while also providing new insights into supposedly familiar,canonical texts.Burkhard Lindner's piece on 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzier barkeit' rises to this challenge in an exemplary manner. Stressing that none of the threeversions of the essay can layclaim tobeing definitive, he extrapolates the salient points ofBenjamin's argument through a 'synoptic' cross-reading of all threeGerman versions and the French translation. In an attempt tomove beyond narrow media theoretical interpretations,Lindner reads the 'Kunstwerk' essay as Benjamin's most sustained and self-reflexive contribution tophilosophical aesthetics and relates Ben I I92 Reviews jamin's positions to those of Hegel, Adorno, and Heidegger. The strength of this article lies in the fact that itdoes not simply recount Benjamin's argument but rather presents amore detached, systematic overview. Not all contributions are as successful: Eckhardt K6hn's piece on the closely related 'Kleine Geschichte der Photographie', forinstance, offers little more than an array of quotations coupled with some historical references,but fails toexplore thedense network of (self-)quotations and intertextual referenceswhich make this essay such a vital part ofBenjamin's ongoing engagement with thevisual media, theirhistoricity,and theirpolitical, aesthetic, and psychological dimensions. Alongside articles on individual texts or textcorpora, thehandbook also contains broader thematic contributions covering such topics as Benjamin's travelwritings and city portraits; his work for the radio; his writings on and for children; and his encounters with French and Russian literatureand culture. These articles are...