Early Writings (1910–1917)

Walter Benjamin became a published writer at the age of seventeen. Yet the first stirrings of this most original of critical minds—penned during the years in which he transformed himself from the comfortable son of a haute-bourgeois German Jewish family into the nomadic, uncompromising philosopher-critic we have since come to appreciate—have until now remained largely unavailable in English. Early Writings, 1910-1917 rectifies this situation, documenting the formative intellectual experiences of one of the twentieth century's most resolutely independent thinkers. Here we see the young Benjamin in his various roles as moralist, cultural critic, school reformer, and poet-philosopher. The diversity of interest and profundity of thought characteristic of his better-known work from the 1920s and 30s are already in evidence, as we witness the emergence of critical projects that would occupy Benjamin throughout his intellectual career: the role of the present in historical remembrance, the relationship of the intellectual to political action, the idea of truth in works of art, and the investigation of language as the veiled medium of experience. Even at this early stage, a recognizably Benjaminian way of thinking comes into view—a daring, boundary-crossing enterprise that does away with classical antitheses in favor of the relentlessly-seeking critical consciousness that produced the groundbreaking works of his later years. With the publication of these early writings, our portrait of one of the most significant intellects of the twentieth century edges closer to completion. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 2 Copyright......Page 3 Table of Contents......Page 4 Abbreviations. and a Note on the Texts......Page 6 Translator's Introduction......Page 7 1. The Poet (1910)......Page 20 2. At Night: Thoughts Suggested by a Schumann Composition (1910)......Page 22 3. The Three Who Sought Religion (1910)......Page 24 4. Storm (1910)......Page 28 5. Spring's Hideaway (1910)......Page 30 6. Sleeping Beauty (1911)......Page 32 7. Diary, Pentecost 1911......Page 39 8. The Free School Community (1911)......Page 45 9. The Pa11 of Evening (ca. 1911)......Page 52 10. Curriculum Yitae (1911)......Page 55 11. Epilogue (1912)......Page 59 12. School Reform: A Cultural Movement (1912)......Page 63 13. Dialogue on the Religiosity of the Present (1912)......Page 68 14. Quiet Story (ca. 1912)......Page 91 15. Estranged Land (1913)......Page 94 16. Teaching and Valuation (1913)......Page 96 17. Romanticism: An Undelivered Address to Students (1913)......Page 107 18. Moral Education (1913)......Page 113 19. "Experience" (1913)......Page 122 20. Thoughts on Gerhart Hauptmann's Festival Play (1913)......Page 126 21. The Aviator (ca. 1913)......Page 132 22. Death of the Father: A Short Story (1913)......Page 134 23. Romanticism: Reply of the "Unsanctified" (1913)......Page 138 24. Youth Was Silent (1913)......Page 141 25. Conversation on Love (ca. 1913)......Page 145 26. The Metaphysics of Youth (1913-1914)......Page 150 27. Student Authors' Evenings (1913-1914)......Page 167 28. Erotic Education (1913-1914)......Page 172 29. The Religious Position of the New Youth (1914)......Page 174 30. Two Poems by Friedrich Holderlin (1914-1915)......Page 177 31. The Life of Students (1914-1915)......Page 203 32. A Child's View of Color (1914-1915)......Page 217 33. The Rainbow: A Conversation about Imagination (ca. 1915)......Page 220 34. The Rainbow, or The Art of Paradise (ca. 1915)......Page 230 35. The Happiness of Ancient Man (1916)......Page 234 36. Socrates (1916)......Page 239 37. On the Middle Ages (1916)......Page 244 38. Trauerspiel and Tragedy (1916)......Page 247 39. The Rofe of Language in Trauerspiel and Tragedy (1916)......Page 252 40. On Language as Such and on the Language of Man (1916)......Page 257 41. Aphorisms (ca. 1916-1917)......Page 276 42. Balzac (ca. 1916-1917)......Page 279 43. Dostoevsky's The Idiot (1917)......Page 281 44. On Seeing the Morning Light (1911)......Page 287 45. The Centaur (1917)......Page 289 Credits......Page 292 Index......Page 295 In this addition to a project to bring to English-speaking audiences the work of Benjamin (1892-1940), an important German-Jewish philosopher and critic, this annotated translation compiles a selection of his shorter writings written between the ages of 17 and 25. Eiland (literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) traces these poems, short stories, and essays back to Benjamin's high school/German Youth Movement days. Following biographical and cultural context, the chronologically-arranged selections span his interests in creativity, educational reform, religion, "the metaphysics of youth," and the works of Holderlin, Balzac, and Dostoevsky, among others The first stirrings of this most original of critical minds-penned during the years when he transformed himself from the comfortable son of a German Jewish family into the nomadic, boundary-crossing philosopher-critic we appreciate-have until now remained largely unavailable in English. Early Writings, 1910-1917 rectifies this situation.