BLASTING THE PAST: A REREADING OF WALTER BENJAMIN’S THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
BLASTING THE PAST: A REREADING OF WALTER BENJAMIN’S THESES ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Author(s): Žarko CvejićSubject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Walter Benjamin; history; historical materialism; historicism; progress; Karl Marx; allegory; narrativity; continuum of history; Fascism
Summary/Abstract: The text offers a reappraisal of Walter Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History (Über den Begriff der Geschichte; ‘On the Concept of History’) from the perspective of global politics today and its similarities with the socio-economic and political situation in Europe and the Americas during the 1920s and 30s; more specifically, the impact of crises on the erosion of trust in liberal representative democracy and the concomitant rise of mostly rightwing populist movements and their strongmen leaders, aided to a significant degree by the media, ‘old’ and ‘new’ alike. The purpose of the text is to draw lessons from Benjamin’s vision of materialist historiography for our current political predicament.
Journal: Filozofija i društvo
- Issue Year: 30/2019
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 384-398
- Page Count: 15
- Language: English