Walter Benjamin

Abstract

The work of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) ranges from art-theoretical books on German romanticism and the baroque tragic drama to an unfinished study on nineteenth-century Paris and religiously inspired and politically oriented writings. His overall philosophy was influenced by intellectual sources as diverse as Jewish messianism, historical materialism, modernism and surrealism. The texts he devoted to the topic of cinema are an illustration of this “Janus face” (Scholem 1981: 197) and remain remarkable in their capacity to combine an overall Marxist perspective with insights on the nature and reception of films relevant outside the Marxist political framework.