Walter Benjamin: An Introduction to His Work and Thought

"Uwe Steiner is widely regarded as one of the leading Benjamin scholars working today, with particular expertise in aspects of Benjamin's work that are less familiar to an English-language audience. In Walter Benjamin, he has produced a truly outstanding introduction to Benjamin's work; this book is the product of a career spent thinking about Benjamin. Steiner is able not just to open up major works and concepts, but to show, in very short compass, their place in a complex cultural field. His ability to combine deep reading with broad contextualization is the ideal combination for a critical introduction to this major thinker. Written with precision and lucidity, this book does a real service to the legions of readers interested in Benjamin." Michael Jennings, Princeton University

Praise For the German Edition

"The scholarly judgment in this account proves itself insightful and reliable in showing how Benjamin holds his own uniquely labrinthine course through the sway of powerful contemporaries, as well as showing how decisively he could advance through improbable detours with figures of much lesser intrinsic significance or value. For this reason, the book offers much to those long familiar with Benjamin's receptio, as well as to those looking for a sound introduction."

Monatshefte"[Steiner's] dual focus on text and context offers a fruitful and illminating introduction to Benjamin's challenging writings." Paragaph

Seven decades after his death, German Jewish writer, philosopher, and literary critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) continues to fascinate and influence. Here Uwe Steiner offers a comprehensive and sophisticated introduction to the oeuvre of this intriguing theorist.

Acknowledged only by a small circle of intellectuals during his lifetime, Benjamin is now a major figure whose work is essential to an understanding of modernity. Steiner traces the development of Benjamin's thought chronologically through his writings on philosophy, literature, history, politics, the media, art, photography, cinema, technology, and theology. Walter Benjamin reveals the essential coherence of its subject's thinking while also analyzing the controversial or puzzling facets of Benjamin's work. That coherence, Steiner contends, can best be appreciated by placing Benjamin in his proper context as a member of the German philosophical tradition and a participant in contemporary intellectual debates.

As Benjamin's writing attracts more and more readers in the English-speaking world, Walter Benjamin will be a valuable guide to this fascinating body of work.

Uwe Steiner is professor in and chair of the Department of German Studies at Rice University and the author or editor of numerous books in German
Michael Winkler is professor emeritus of German studies at Rice University