Walter Benjamin and History

The first book to examine in detail Benjamin's Theses on the Philosophy of History Benjamin's collection of fragments, Theses on the Philosophy of History, play a determining role in how Benjamin's thought is understood, as well as in the debate about the interplay between politics, history and time. Walter Benjamin and History is the first volume to give access to the themes and problems raised by the Theses, providing valuable exegetical and historical work on the text. The essays collected here are all the work of noted Benjamin scholars, and pursue the themes central to the Theses.

Andrew Benjamin is Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Monash University, Australia. His many publications include Towards a Relational Ontology. Philosophy's Other Possibility (2015), Working with Walter Benjamin (2013), Of Jews and Animals (2010), Place, Commonality and Judgment (2010) and Style and Time: Essays on the Politics of Appearance (2006).

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction, Andrew Benjamin (Monash University, Australia) 1. The Supposition of the Aura: The Now, The Then, and Modernity, Georges Didi-Huberman 2. The Shortness of History or, Photography In Nuce: Benjamin's Attenuation of the Negative, David Ferris(University of Colorado, USA) 3. 'Now': Walter Benjamin and Historical Time, Werner Hamacher (Goethe University, Germany) 4. Down the K. Hole: Walter Benjamin's Destructive Landsurveying of History, Stephanie Polsky (Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK) 5. Between Melancholia and Fetishism: Benjamin's Losses, Rebecca Comay (Univeristy of Toronto, Canada) 6. Trembling Contours: Kierkegaard - Benjamin - Brecht, Rainer Nagele (John Hopkins University, USA) 7. The Subject of History: Benjamin's facies hypocritica, Dimitris Vardoulakis (Monash University, Australia) 8. Tradition as Injunction: Benjamin and the Critique of Historicisms, Philippe Simay (Ecole d'Architecture, Paris-Belleville) 9. Boredom and Distraction: The Moods of Modernity, Andrew Benjamin (Monash University, Australia) 10. Walter Benjamin's Interior History, Charles Rice (University of New South Wales, Australia) 11. What is the Matter with Architecture History?, Gevork Hartoonian (University of Canberra, Australia) 12. Messianic Epistemology: Thesis XV, Robert Gibbs (University of Toronto, Canada) 13. Benjamin and the History of Religion, Howard Caygill (Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK) Contributors