The Benjamin Files

More about the book

Jameson’s first full-length engagement with Walter Benjamin’s work offers a comprehensive reading of Benjamin's major texts, alongside numerous shorter reviews, notes, and letters. It argues that Benjamin was an anti-philosophical, anti-systematic thinker whose writing was influenced by his diverse conceptual interests. This resulted in overlapping language fields and thematic codes that often contradicted each other, helping to clarify the tension between the mystical or theological aspects of his work and his political or historical inclinations. The struggle over his legacy among followers of Scholem, Adorno, and Brecht is better understood from this perspective, which gives more weight to the Brechtian viewpoint than many academic studies do. Benjamin’s writings anticipate contemporary theory by prioritizing language and representation over philosophical unity, with political motivations evident throughout his work, from brief articles to grand projects. His explicit aim to "transfer the crisis into the heart of language" calls for readers to reconnect linguistic and representational issues with the underlying political themes of his time, which require access to another era—an idea that resonates with Benjamin’s own expressions.