COML 6429

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  • Schedule of Classes - June 22, 2015 4:42PM EDT
  • Course Catalog - June 11, 2015 6:21PM EDT

COML 6429
Walter Benjamin

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

This extraordinary figure died in 1941, and his death is emblematic of the intellectual depradations of Nazism. Yet since World War II, his influence, his reputation, and his fascination for scholars in a wide range of cultural and political disciplines has steadily grown. He is seen as a bridging figure between German and Jewish studies, between materialist critique of culture and the submerged yet powerful voice of theology, between literary history and philosophy. We will review Benjamin's life and some of the key disputes over his heritage; read some of the best-known of his essays; and devote significant time to his enigmatic and enormously rich masterwork, the Arcades Project, concluding with consideration of the relevance of Benjamin's insights for cultural and political dilemmas today.

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Syllabi: none

  • 17419 COML 6429   SEM 101

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