Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction to the philosophy of Walter Benjamin of the 1930’s: key concepts, reception of Marxism.
Week 2: Benjamin’s method of investigation – concept of dialectical image. Reading: Convolute N of The Arcade’s Project.
Week 3: Political and social conditions of 19th century’s Paris. Reading: Convolute N of The Arcade’s Project.
Week 4: Technological progress in the 19th century. Reading: The Work of Art in the Age of its Reproducibility.
Week 5: Emergence of the phenomenon of mass. Reading: Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire.
Week 6: Baudelaire and the figure of flaneur. Reading: Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire.
Week 7: Baudelaire and modernity. Reading: Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire.
Week 8: Modern poetry – Baudelaire vs. Hugo. Investigation of Fleurs du mal.
Week 9: Fleurs du mal – analysis part II: the concept of aura. Reading: The Work of Art in the Age of its Reproducibility.
Week 10: Modern painting vs. photography & film. Reading: Reading: The Work of Art in the Age of its Reproducibility, Little History of Photography.
Week 11: Modern architecture – steel constructions. Reading: Convolute K of The Arcade’s Project.
Week 12: Paris and the phenomenon of a modern city. Reading: Convolute K of The Arcade’s Project.
Annotation
The course will focus on the concept of modernity in Walter Benjamin’s philosophy. As one of the 20th century’s main thinkers of modernity, Benjamin devoted most of his late writings to tracing the origins of modern art, modern thinking, and modern way of life in general.
In the Arcades Project Benjamin analyzes social, technological, political and cultural conditions of the 19th century’s way of life – mostly focusing on human life taking place in large cities – to show, which constellation of “forces” gave birth to the idea of modernity. His search ultimately leads him to two concrete figures – Paris and Charles Baudelaire.
The author of Fleurs du mal who spent his life in Paris of the middle of 19th century is considered by Benjamin to be the very first modern artist and originator of modern approach to art. What is then so specific about Paris and Baudelaire for Benjamin to assign them the role of the origin of modernity? The courses aim will be to elucidate, by which decisive traits – according to Benjamin - does modernity differentiate itself from former (and later) forms of thinking and why did a constellation of these traits come about in Paris of the 19th century.