Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin 

1892–1940, German essayist and critic. He is known for his synthesis of eccentric Marxist theory and Jewish messianism. In particular, his essays on Charles Baudelaire and Franz Kafka as well as his speculation on symbolism, allegory, and the function of art in a mechanical age have profoundly affected contemporary criticism. Benjamin was influenced by his close friendship with the historian of Jewish mysticism Gershom Gerhard Scholem. In 1933, he moved to France because of the rise of the Nazis. When the Nazis invaded France, he fled to Spain, was denied entry, and committed suicide.

. 2013. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/benjamin-walter.html. [Accessed May 2013].

Walter Benjamin Quotes:

'Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.'


'Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.'


'Death is the sanction of everything the story-teller can tell. He has borrowed his authority from death.'


'The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.'


'It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.'


'Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.'


'The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception.'


 Walter Benjamin Quotes - BrainyQuote . 2013. Walter Benjamin Quotes - BrainyQuote . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/walter_benjamin.html. [Accessed 24 May 2013].

walter benjamin - Google Search. 2013. walter benjamin - Google Search. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=walter+benjamin&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB510GB510&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=RraeUb2CDqn30gX2pIDABQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1687&bih=908#imgrc=_. [Accessed 24 May 2013].