Benjamin's Library: Modernity, Nation, and the Baroque (Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought)

In Benjamin’s Library, Jane O. Newman offers, for the first time in any language, a reading of Walter Benjamin’s notoriously opaque work, Origin of the German Tragic Drama that systematically attends to its place in discussions of the Baroque in Benjamin’s day. Taking into account the literary and cultural contexts of Benjamin’s work, Newman recovers Benjamin’s relationship to the ideologically loaded readings of the literature and political theory of the seventeenth-century Baroque that abounded in Germany during the political and economic crises of the Weimar years. To date, the significance of the Baroque for Origin of the German Tragic Drama has been glossed over by students of Benjamin, most of whom have neither read it in this context nor engaged with the often incongruous debates about the period that filled both academic and popular texts in the years leading up to and following World War I. Armed with extraordinary historical, bibliographical, philological, and orthographic research, Newman shows the extent to which Benjamin participated in these debates by reconstructing the literal and figurative history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century books that Benjamin analyzes and the literary, art historical and art theoretical, and political theological discussions of the Baroque with which he was familiar. In so doing, she challenges the exceptionalist, even hagiographic, approaches that have become common in Benjamin studies. The result is a deeply learned book that will infuse much-needed life into the study of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. In Benjamin's Library, Jane O. Newman offers, for the first time in any language, a reading of Walter Benjamin's notoriously opaque work, Origin of the German Tragic Drama that systematically attends to its place in discussions of the Baroque in Benjamin's day. Taking into account the literary and cultural contexts of Benjamin's work, Newman recovers Benjamin's relationship to the ideologically loaded readings of the literature and political theory of the seventeenth-century Baroque that abounded in Germany during the political and economic crises of the Weimar years. To date, the significance of the Baroque for Origin of the German Tragic Drama has been glossed over by students of Benjamin, most of whom have neither read it in this context nor engaged with the often incongruous debates about the period that filled both academic and popular texts in the years leading up to and following World War I. Armed with extraordinary historical, bibliographical, philological, and orthographic research, Newman shows the extent to which Benjamin participated in these debates by reconstructing the literal and figurative history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century books that Benjamin analyzes and the literary, art historical and art theoretical, and political theological discussions of the Baroque with which he was familiar. In so doing, she challenges the exceptionalist, even hagiographic, approaches that have become common in Benjamin studies. The result is a deeply learned book that will infuse much-needed life into the study of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Publisher's note Content: ""Benjaminâ€?s Library"" ""Contents"" ""Preface"" ""Acknowledgments"" ""Textual Note"" ""Introduction: Benjaminâ€?s Baroque: A Lost Object?"" ""1. Inventing the Baroque: A Critical History of Nineteenth- andEarly Twentieth-Century Debates"" ""The Renaissance of the German Baroque in the“Epistemo-Critical Prologueâ€?"" ""Locating Baroque Style"" ""Origin and the “Heroicâ€? Age of the German Literary Baroque"" ""2. The Plays Are the Thing: Textual Politics andthe German Drama"" ""The Origin of the Silesian School: Nationalism and theBaroque Tragic Drama"" ""Collecting the Baroque: Editing the German Dramatic Tradition""""The Task of the Translator: Shakespeare as German Tragic Drama"" ""3. Melancholy Germans: War Theology, Allegory, andthe Lutheran Baroque"" ""Benjaminâ€?s Hamlet in the Crosshairs of War Theology"" ""Reforming the Baroque: Benjamin on Warburg on Luther"" ""Allegory, Emblems, and Gryphiusâ€?s Catharina von Georgien"" ""Conclusion: Baroque Legacies: National Socialismâ€?s Benjamin"" ""Bibliography"" ""Index"" Benjamin’s Library 3 Contents 7 Preface 9 Acknowledgments 17 Textual Note 21 Introduction: Benjamin’s Baroque: A Lost Object? 25 1. Inventing the Baroque: A Critical History of Nineteenth- andEarly Twentieth-Century Debates 47 The Renaissance of the German Baroque in the“Epistemo-Critical Prologue” 52 Locating Baroque Style 68 Origin and the “Heroic” Age of the German Literary Baroque 88 2. The Plays Are the Thing: Textual Politics andthe German Drama 101 The Origin of the Silesian School: Nationalism and theBaroque Tragic Drama 107 Collecting the Baroque: Editing the German Dramatic Tradition 122 The Task of the Translator: Shakespeare as German Tragic Drama 139 3. Melancholy Germans: War Theology, Allegory, andthe Lutheran Baroque 162 Benjamin’s Hamlet in the Crosshairs of War Theology 167 Reforming the Baroque: Benjamin on Warburg on Luther 178 Allegory, Emblems, and Gryphius’s Catharina von Georgien 194 Conclusion: Baroque Legacies: National Socialism’s Benjamin 209 Bibliography 229 Index 249 In__Benjamin's Library__, Jane O. Newman offers, for the first time in any language, a reading of Walter Benjamin's notoriously opaque work,__Origin of the German Tragic Drama__that systematically attends to its place in discussions of the Baroque in Benjamin's day. Taking into account the literary and cultural contexts of Benjamin's work, Newman recovers Benjamin's relationship to the ideologically loaded readings of the literature and political theory of the seventeenth-century Baroque that abounded in Germany during the political and economic crises of the Weimar years. Recovering Walter Benjamin's connection to seventeenth-century Baroque literature and political theory.