Description
Book SynopsisA leading theorist on literature and media reveals a new and productive aspect of Benjamin’s thought by focusing on the critical suffix “-ability” that Benjamin so tellingly deploys in his work. The result is an illuminating perspective on Benjamin’s thought by way of his language.
Trade ReviewBenjamin's -abilities is a landmark work in the study of Walter Benjamin and in all of the many fields in which Benjamin's work has become indispensable. This book marks the culmination of the work of one of the most influential and admired critics writing today, whose work has been profoundly involved in and shaped by an innovative engagement with Benjamin. -- Kevin McLaughlin, Brown University
Because no single methodology could account for all the textual maneuvers and figurations with which Benjamin saturates his variegated writings, a new book on Benjamin must also offer an entirely new way of seeing and reading-- a tall order.
Benjamin's -abilities is just such a book. Sam Weber has long been one of the most significant and original thinkers on the international scene. This book, perhaps Weber's magnum opus, will be of great interest not only to scholars of Benjamin but also to a wide community of readers in the humanities and beyond. -- Gerhard Richter, University of California, Davis
In this demanding book, Weber analyzes Benjaminian theory and its potential, presenting a close reading of Walter Benjamin at his most energetic and complex...Through Benjamin, Weber illuminates what happens between what is written and what is read and the true impossibility of defining any sort of straight line between those two points. * Publishers Weekly *
Weber's close readings are illuminating. -- David Gordon * Library Journal *
In
Benjamin's –abilities, Samuel Weber takes an innovative approach to Walter Benjamin's work. In contrast to the burgeoning secondary literature on Benjamin devoted to broad themes (his "messianism," his "Marxism," etc.), Weber, who has achieved academic prominence with scholarship on the Frankfurt School, psychoanalysis, deconstruction and media culture, opens up a fertile avenue of interpretation by paying close attention to a stylistic idiosyncrasy running through Benjamin's oeuvre...[Weber] deftly navigates this labyrinth of interpretations, exhibiting a keen sense of Benjamin's singularly elusive style of thinking and writing. -- Ross Benjamin * Times Literary Supplement *
Not only the best read of 2008 but, with a shelf full of works on Walter Benjamin, the best book on him I've ever read. -- Rosalind Krauss * Artforum *
Table of Contents* List of Abbreviations * I. Benjamin's -abilities *1. Introduction *2. Prehistory: Kant, Holderlin--et cetera *3. Criticizability--Calculability *4. Impart-ability: Language as Medium *5. Translatability I: Following (Nachfolge) *6. Translatability II: Afterlife *7. Citability--of Gesture *8. Ability and Style *9. An Afterlife of -abilities: Derrida * II. Legibilities *10. Genealogy of Modernity: History, Myth, and Allegory in Benjamin's Origin of the German Mourning Play *11. Awakening *12. Taking Exception to Decision: Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt *13. Violence and Gesture: Agamben Reading Benjamin Reading Kafka Reading Cervantes... *14. Song and Glance: Walter Benjamin's Secret Names (zugewandt--unverwandt) *15. "Streets, Squares, Theaters": A City on the Move--Walter Benjamin's Paris *16. God and the Devil--in Detail *17. Closing the Net: "Capitalism as Religion" (Benjamin) *18. The Ring as Trauerspiel: Reading Wagner with Benjamin and Derrida *19. Reading Benjamin *20. "Seagulls" * Appendix. Walter Benjamin's "Seagulls": A Translation * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index
