Walter Benjamin's Critical Engagement with Phenomenology


My research project aims to examine Walter Benjamin’s philosophy in terms of its critical engagement with Husserlian phenomenology. Benjamin’s work is most often connected either to Jewish Messianism or Marxism. Apart from this canonical view, a number of scholars have privileged the influence of Kant and his legacy on Benjamin’s early writings. They claim that Kant and the Neo-Kantian philosopher Hermann Cohen had a crucial impact on the concepts, structure, and strategies in Benjamin’s early works. What goes missing in this view, however, is the significance of phenomenology for an understanding of Benjamin’s work at large. In his 1928 curriculum vitae, Benjamin lists Husserl, together with Plato, alongside Kant and Cohen as formative influences. Yet he does not elaborate on this phenomenological influence on his early works. Even though some recent studies have explored Benjamin’s relation to Husserlian phenomenology, there remain many unanswered questions about how Benjamin adopts and, in the later stage of his writings, transforms the phenomenological ideas into his own philosophy. It is these questions that my research seeks to investigate.