Walter Benjamin Reading Group
Walter Benjamin at the National Library of France, Gisele Freund, 1937.
The Storyteller
January 23rd, 2024, 6-8PM. Online.Readings
Walter Benjamin, ‘The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov’ (1936) from Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, ed. Hannah Arendt, 1968, Harcourt Inc.
Extra Material
Walter Benjamin, ‘The Morning of the Empress’, ‘Sketched Into Mobile Dust’, ‘The Voyage of the Mascot’, ‘The Wish’, from The Storyteller: Tales Out of Loneliness, trans./ed. Sam Dolbear, Esther Leslie and Sebastian Truskolaski, Verso, 2016.
Walter Benjamin, ‘Experience and Poverty’, from The Storyteller Essays, trans. Tess Lewis, ed. Samuel Titan, 2016, NYRB.
Rey Chow, ‘Walter Benjamin’s Love Affair with Death’, New German Critique, No.48, Autumn 1989, p.63-86.
Johann Peter Hebel, ‘Unexpected Reunion’ and ‘Kannitverstan’, from The Treasure Chest, trans. John Hibberd, Penguin Classics, 1995.
Samuel Titan (ed.), ‘Introduction’, The Storyteller Essays, 2016, NYRB.
Radio
February 19th, 2024, 6-8PM. Online.Readings
Walter Benjamin, selections from Radio Benjamin, ed. Lecia Rosenthal, trans. Diana Reese, Jonathan Lutes, Lisa Harries Schumann, 2014, Verso.
Extra Material
Michael Rosen, ‘The Benjamin Broadcasts’ (radio programme, 58:00), BBC Radio 4, 2 November 2014.
Esther Leslie, Gareth Evans, Mark Aerial Waller, ‘Radio Benjamin: Live Now’ (recording of an undated event held at Tate Modern).
Antonio Somaini, ‘Walter Benjamin’s Media Theory: The “Medium” and the “Apparat”’, Grey Room, No. 62, Winter 2016, p.6-41.
Lucas Bessire and Daniel Fisher, ‘The Anthropology of Radio Fields’, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 42, 2013, p.363-378.
On the Concept of History
April 3rd, 2024. 6:30-8:30PM. Online.Readings
Walter Benjamin, ‘On the Concept of History’ (1940), from Selected Writings Volume 4: 1938-1940, ed. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, trans. Harry Zohn, Harvard UP, 2003.
Extra Material
Walter Benjamin, ‘Paralipomena to ‘On the Concept of History’’ (1940), from Selected Writings Volume 4: 1938-1940, trans. Howard Eiland and Edmund Jephcott.
Michael Löwy, Fire Alarm: Reading Walter Benjamin’s ‘On the Concept of History’, trans. Chris Turner, Verso, 2005.
Michael Taussig, ‘Walter Benjamin’s Grave’, Walter Benjamin’s Grave, University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Susan Handelman, ‘Walter Benjamin and the Angel of History’, CrossCurrents, Vol. 41 No. 3, Fall 1991, p.344-352.
Jacob Taubes, ‘Seminar Notes on Walter Benjamin’s “Theses on the Philosophy of History”’ from Walter Benjamin and Theology, ed. Colby Dickinson and Stéphane Symons, Fordham UP, 2016.
Coin de la rue Valette et Panthéon, 5e arrondissement, Eugène Atget, 1925.
Photography
May 1st, 2024. 6:30-8:30PM. Online.
Readings
Walter Benjamin, ‘A Small History of Photography’ (1931), from One Way Street and Other Writings, ed./trans. Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter, Verso, 1997.
Extra Material
Esther Leslie (ed.), ‘Introduction: Walter Benjamin and the Birth of Photography’, from Walter Benjamin: On Photography, Reaktion Books, 2015.
Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1935), from Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, Schocken, 1969.
Photographs by Eugene Atget, August Sander, David Octavius Hill and Karl Blossfeldt.
Upcoming
Cities
If you would like to participate, please contact Gabriel via email.
Everyone is welcome and no prior knowledge of the text is required.