Inheriting Walter Benjamin

Gerhard Richter is Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature and Chair of the German Studies Department at Brown University, USA. He is the author of five previous books in critical theory, including Afterness: Figures of Following in Modern Thought and Aesthetics (2011).

• Acknowledgments1. Inheriting Benjamin Otherwise2. Erbsünde: A Note on Paradoxical Inheritance in Benjamin’s Kafka Essay3. Benjamin’s Blotting Paper: Writing and Erasing a Theological Figure of Thought4. Critique and the Thing: Benjamin and Heidegger5. The Work of Art and Its Formal and Genealogical Determinations: Benjamin’s “Cool Place” between Kant and Nietzsche6. Going with Time: A Miniature on Time and Photography after BenjaminBibliographyIndex

Engaging and lucidly written, Inheriting Walter Benjamin offers new insights into some of Benjamin’s most important theoretical concerns. From inheritance to critique, from the work of art to the critical, dangerous moment of reading, Richter’s rhetorical close readings of key passages are one of the great strengths of this work.