The Messianic Reduction Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time [Hardcover]

The Messianic Reductionis a groundbreaking study of Walter Benjamin's thought. Fenves places Benjamin's early writings in the context of contemporaneous philosophy, with particular attention to the work of Bergson, Cohen, Husserl, Frege, and Heidegger. By concentrating on a neglected dimension of Benjamin's friendship with Gershom Scholem, who was a student of mathematics before he became a scholar of Jewish mysticism, Fenves shows how mathematical research informs Benjamin's reflections on the problem of historical time. In order to capture the character of Benjamin's entrance into the phenomenological school, the book includes a thorough analysis of two early texts he wrote under the title of The Rainbow, translated here for the first time. In its final chapters, the book works out Benjamin's deep and abiding engagement with Kantian critique, including Benjamin's discovery of the political counterpart to the categorical imperative in the idea of pure violence. WhatThe Messianic Reductionaccomplishes is simply astonishing. It is an intricate dance among meticulous readings of the early Benjamin and readings of the philosophical context in which he wrote. Fenves offers us not simply an original window on Benjamin's early works, but also takes up issues that are critical to his entire opus. This extraordinarily ambitious volume will be a keystone to the understanding of Benjamin's work and of his place in twentieth-century philosophy. Fenves's focus on the messianic reeduction and the shape of time is in its own right an important contribution to the non-specialist's general understanding of Benjamin's thought . . . Fenves's book is certainly valuable as a serious introduction to key elements of Benjamin's early thought, elements that have been relatively overlooked amidst the extensive literature on Benjamin. Peter Fenves is Joan and Sarepta Harrison Professor of Literature, Professor of German, Comparative Literary Studies, and Jewish Studilƒ°