German justine mcgill, the porous coupling of walter benjamin and asja lacis, angelaki. Although walter benjamin possessed a profound knowledge of classical german literature, his preoccupation with modernism usually led him to explore more obscure or neglected traditions. At the beginning of their depiction of naples, walter benjamin and asja lacis make the following comment. A critical life, by howard eiland and michael jennings, is a step in the right direction. Benjamin was staying with him in skovsbostrand, denmark, during the summer of 1934, as he was to do in later years. More than a territory, naples was a moment, because it induced movement and metamorphosis. Benjamin publish the autobiographical berlin childhood around 1900 cl, 4378. Besides studying soviet history, reading walter benjamin was what got me hooked on all this commie crap.
Walter benjamin and asja lacis, naples, porous city, comic mode, tragic mode. In the context of his passionate engagement with questions of aesthetics, the scope of benjamins media theory can be fully appreciated. Today, the term porosity in this context is increasingly used conceptually. It was them who introduced the term porosity in 1925 to describe the social and urban structure of naples. The question for architectural theory especially a theory in which the digital and the political can be interarticulated is how to rethink border relations. Walter benjamin meets asja lacis in capri mayseptember, 1924. Pdf walter benjamin e il potere seduttivo di asja lacis. In a chronicle from 1928, walter benjamin and asja lacis described a journey to naples. Walter benjamin in moscow brooklyn institute for social.
The porous city as a model for urban renewal estelle alma mare research fellow, department of architecture, tshwane university of technology, pretoria email. Some time ago, walter benjamin and asja lacis used the term porosity with reference to naples urban characteristics spaces merging into each other and providing the backdrop for the unforeseen improvisation as a way of life. In 1924 she met the german philosopher and critic walter benjamin in capri, and the duo would have an intermittent affair for the next several years as he visited her in moscow and riga. Here benjamin evolves a theory of language as the medium of all creation, discusses theater and surrealism, reminisces about berlin in the 1920s, recalls conversations with bertolt brecht. Starting from this example, a hard cut can bring us to walter benjamin and asja lacis, who have chosen a very different approach to understanding a city like naples. Jennings full book living the life of allegory by ian balfour why, ever since adam, who has got to the meaning of this great. T he periodical octoberpublished by the mit press in cambridge, massachusetts recently devoted a whole issue, number 35, to printing a translation of walter benjamins moscow diary, which dates from december 6, 1926 to the end of january, 1927. Benjamin, walter the work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility and other writings on media free ebook download as pdf file. Walter benjamin biography childhood, life achievements. Walter benjamin and asja lacis, naples andrea camilleri, the terracotta dog franco cassano,for a thought from the south and going slow iain chambers, another map, another history, another modernity elena ferrante, my brilliant friend antonio gramsci, the southern question. Buckmorss notes that the concept of porosity, which is central to this essay, was suggested by lacis buck. Jul 16, 2012 andrew benjamin, porosity at the edge. Walter benjamin stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. As this study of asja lacis demonstrates, the mythological parame.
In the writings by walter benjamin devoted to the city, one can discern a veritable. It cant be a coincidence that the other day i came across a copy of walter benjamin s essay on naples neapel, written with asja lacis in 1925 and that the very next day yesterday was pasquetta, the monday after easter, when all neapolitans move out into the streets for their yearly lemminglike march to nowhere the cliffs are on strike. African kraal, oriental bazaar, postapartheid city. Their description reminds one of the vitruvian directions for a stage design of the city in both the comic and the tragic modes, as depicted by. Particular attention is paid to the term porosity, which was referred to in the 1920s by walter benjamin and asja lacis on naples and requires a historical classification. The volume contains some of benjamins bestknown work alongside fascinating, littleknown essayssome appearing for the first time in english. In the train i had made a mental note of the name and address of a hotel in case there should be nobody waiting for me at the station. Walter benjamin s importance as a philosopher and critical theorist can be gauged by the diversity of his intellectual influence and the continuing productivity of his thought. The early literary criticism of walter benjamin by. This essay, however, is only the beginning of a vast collection of writings that the editors have assembled to demonstrate what was revolutionary about benjamins explorations on media. Naples is the place where benjamin sees for the first time the phantasmagoria of modern, even if it is permeated with different. Hy wou met lacis trou en eis dat dora van hom skei. The conflict was set off by asja lacis, the friend benjamin met in capri, and it was powerfully rekindled by bertolt brechts presence at her side.
The project presented here deals with the question of how to describe the historical structure and stratification of naples with the help of maps and texts. This paper attempts to demonstrate that walter benjamin, in his writings dedicated to the city, shaped a true microsociology of everyday life of the city, which is part of a sociological type. Walter benjamin, fleeing occupied france, presents himself to the wife of a certain fittko he has met at. On the basis of these examples it is proposed that, on a modest scale, this concept could become a model for urban renewal in postapartheid south africa.
Porosity as an interpretative figure has generated numerous texts that describe the breaking of borderssometimes violentthat define or dedefine neapolitan city life and by. Walter benjamin and mikhail kaufman in moscow john hoffmann how would a film look if walter benjamin had been behind the movie camera. Down an alley near galata tower, the young gallery avto is exhibiting a timely dedication to asja lacis, the latvian revolutionary director who introduced walter benjamin to bertolt brecht, and was a conduit for russian and german intellectuals. Benjamin, walter the work of art in the age of its. She has been cited as a factor in benjamin s embracing marxism. This essay, however, is only the beginning of a vast collection of writings that the editors have assembled to demonstrate what was revolutionary about benjamin s explorations on media. Lacis was a bolshevik, an actress and director active in post revolutionary russia who saw her own work as integral to revolutionary transformation of society. Miriam hansen entertains this possibility in cinema and experience 2012 when she speculates about thetic principles. The intention to erase the record of lacis importance for benjamin is even more flagrantly displayed in the fact that when the naples essay was. We are currently experiencing intermittent display of pdf links on some article pages.
Beautiful asja lacis, a latvian theatre director, a bolshevik and the reason why walter benjamin became a marxist the summer of 1924. He made a significant contribution to the aesthetic theory and western marxism. Nlr editors, introduction to benjamin, nlr i3, mayjune. In 1928, benjamin dedicated a collection of essays her.
Check out this biography to get detailed information on his life. The setting is the francospanish border, the time 1940. Nov 21, 2016 walter benjamin deserves to be more celebrated, and walter benjamin. Walter benjamin reflections essays aphorisms autobiographical. It was probably on the concept of history that first. Walter benjamin, umjetnost, masovna kultura, aura, ovdjeisada, dijalekticke slike walter benjamin.
Reading benjamin s text today opens up the question of whether porosity becomes the concept through which it may he possible to rework the nature of the border. Riga dpa almost 100 years ago, the german writer walter benjamin 18921940 met the actress and theater director asja lacis 18911979. What distinguishes naples from other large cities is something it has in. She was the personal friend and collaborator of walter benjamin and bertolt brecht whom she introduced to each other, erwin piscator, bernhard reich, and. Thanks to his visit to naples in 1924, walter benjamin began his reflection on the city as a paradigm of modernity. In naples, about which he wrote with his latvian lover asja lacis, he found private life had been effectively abolished. The encounter with a city endures within attempts to articulate that experience within writing. The evolution of walter benjamins masterpiece books. Porosity its etymology derives from passage, is a term coined by walter benjamin and asja lacis in naples, an essay they coauthored in 1925. Porosity indicates the moments in which thresholds appear in\ud space and time, thresholds that indicate a delimited experience. Thresholds umbrales 2001 2002 en in 1924 walter benjamin and asja lacis travelled together to the city of naples. It is this, not least, that disheartens the tourist. Home \ walter benjamin reflections essays aphorisms autobiographical writings pdf. The narration is comprised of excerpts from the essays naples written by walter benjamin and asja lacis in 1925 and hashish in marseille written by benjamin.
Benjamins work is full of scrolling, vertiginous descriptions of heterogeneous spaces, an example of which can be found in the essay, naples, which he coauthored with his latvian bolshevik lover, asja lacis benjamin and lacis, 1978. Porosity at the edge working through walter benjamins. Although he decided, after many hesitations, not to join the communist movement. It is an efficient introduction to his work and legacy while also offering a detailed account of benjamin the man, his strengths and weaknesses and the world he lived in. Benjamin and lacis met in naples where they collaborated on the first of benjamins city portraits, the naples. Asja lacis 18911979, latvian actress and theater director, whom benjamin first met in. The writing ofasja lacis susan ingram in 1971, the chief editor of the berlin journal alternative hildegard brenner wrote that. Despite its brevity, this remark establishes the perspective from which they view the city of naples.
In 1924 walter benjamin and asja lacis described the environs and architecture of naples as porous, explaining that its built environment resists any fixed or designated functionality. But if we enter into the life stage of complex, uncertain, and often dialectical excitement, and even daytoday consumerist rituals, we discover walter benjamin and asja lacis on naples to reveal a particularly visionary appeal. Working through walter benjamins naples in walter benjamin and architecture edited by gevork hartoonian, routledge, 2010, p. Long before marshall mcluhan, benjamin saw that the way a bullet rips into its victim is exactly the way a movie or pop song lodges in the soul. Some time ago, walter benjamin and asja lacis used the term porosity with reference to naples urban characteristics spaces merging into each other and. A companion volume to illuminations, the first collection of walter benjamins writings, reflections presents a further sampling of his wideranging work. Deliriously leafing through naples, city of paradoxes. Sep 21, 2015 in naples, about which he wrote with his latvian lover asja lacis, he found private life had been effectively abolished. Sabinet the porous city as a model for urban renewal. The colour of experience howard caygill this book analyses the development of benjamin s concept of experience in his early writings showing that it emerges from an engagement with visual experience, and in particular the experience of colour. The work, coauthored with asja lacis, is a description of the social and urban structure of. Lacis, asja latvian stage director, actress and author who played a crucial role in introducing the work of bertolt brecht to the soviet stage, wrote.
Translated by richard sieburth, edited by gary smith. Similarly, there has been relatively little scholarship on her, with the existing work being predominantly limited to presenting her either as a bolshevik muse to the german philosopher and critic, walter benjamin 18921940, or as a theatre director. In the fall, lacis persuades bertolt brecht to meet benjamin. His thinking has therefore a distinct critical quality, which sets him apart from the dominant and official forms of historical materialism, and gives him a formidable methodological superiority. Comments off on walter benjamin reflections essays aphorisms autobiographical writings pdf jan 19, 2015 services.
Bertolt brecht or intimate history with asja lacis that can be mentioned. She is the unjustly forgotten and extremely important missing link between early soviet experimental theater and revolutionary theater in the weimar republic. The porous coupling of walter benjamin and asja lacis. Walter benjamins writings in german and in english. The patriarch of walter benjamins family, emil benjamin, was a banker in paris who had relocated from france to germany, where he worked as an antiques trader in berlin. Unlike his relationships with scholem and adorno, benjamins acquaintance with brecht began at a time when both had already achieved a degree of renown. Writing to theodor adorno 19031969 in 1935, walter benjamin 18921940 stated of the arcades project, that i can write it only in paris, from the first word to the last, is entirely clear to me now, despite the great mass of preliminary work supporting it. In dieselfde jaar was asja lacis in berlyn en benjamin woon vir twee maande by haar. Benjamin travelled to the soviet union in the winter of 192627 in the company of his close friend asja lacis and her companion. Latvian curator andris brinkmanis exhibits his research till may 31.
Asja lacis, on capri in 1924, followed her to riga in 1925, and spent. Naples 1925 fantastic reports by travelers have touched up the city. Walter benjamin occupies a unique place in the history of modern revolutionary thought. This radical quality was, in part, precipitated by benjamins 1924 encounter with latvian revolutionary and brechts onetime collaborator asja lacis, to whom oneway street is dedicated. Jan 19, 2015 comments off on walter benjamin reflections essays aphorisms autobiographical. The friendship came about through asja lacis, a latvian communist theater director, who benjamin fell in love with during a vacation in italy.
Walter benjamins figurative sociology vincenzo mele university of pisa italy. Walter benjamin was a german philosopher, literary critic, essayist, writer and social critic. Lacis and benjamin s article naples, introducing concept of porosity, published in frankfurter zeitung 1925. In 1924 walter benjamin and asja lacis described the environs and architecture of naples as porous, explaining that its built environment resist any fixed or designated functionality. Benjamin s work is full of scrolling, vertiginous descriptions of heterogeneous spaces, an example of which can be found in the essay, naples, which he coauthored with his latvian bolshevik lover, asja lacis benjamin and lacis, 1978. The appearance of a piece on naples, the first of benjamins articles to be published in the frankfurter zeitung, has been described as marking the real inception. Walter benjamin continued to work through the city. Benjamin discovered communism thanks to the beauty of asja lacis in capri in 1923, and marxist philosophy thanks to a reading of lukacss history and class consciousness. If you are unable to see the pdf link please follow the direct links to the pdf available on all issue table of contents pages and latest articles listing pages. The monstrosity of the body in walter benjamins moscow. Buckmorss notes that the concept of porosity, which is central to this essay, was suggested by lacis buckmorss 26. First, we are analyzing the essay the work of art in the age of mechanical.
The porous coupling of walter benjamin and asja lacis monoskop. During their stay they wrote a wonderful text meditating on the notion of porosity they perceived not only in the geology upon which the city was raised, but also in the citys architecture and street life. When we think of walter benjamin, that consummate urban intellectual, we often picture him between berlin and paris, the cities in which his major contributions to critical theory were conceived and written. Jan 10, 2019 the project presented here deals with the question of how to describe the historical structure and stratification of naples with the help of maps and texts. Benjamin is one of the great twentiethcentury physiognomists of the city, and his portrait of hibernal moscow stands beside his brilliant evocations of berlin, naples, marseilles, and paris. Walter benjamin e il potere seduttivo di asja lacis. Equally, an encounter with a specific city once it admits the possibility of generalization may become productive within design. Moscow diary is more than a record of ideological ambivalence. The early literary criticism of walter benjamin by renk wellek in 1968, with an essay first published in the new yorker, hannah arendt stimulated american interest in walter benjamin.
Walter benjamin and the arcades project springerlink. The meeting in capri in 1924 was the starting point of a friendship and moving relationship between the eminent philosopher and the bolshevik latvian, who is visiting the latvian national library in riga in an exhibition. It was probably on the concept of history that first did it. Primarily regarded as a literary critic and essayist, the philosophical basis of benjamin s writings is increasingly acknowledged. Walter benjamin a critical life howard eiland and michael w. This radical quality was, in part, precipitated by benjamin s 1924 encounter with latvian revolutionary and brechts onetime collaborator asja lacis, to whom oneway street is dedicated. Should catholicism disappear from the face of the earth, its last foothold would perhaps not be rome but naples. In walter benjamin s 1925 essay, naples, cowritten with asja lacis,\ud benjamin asserts that porosity is the inexhaustible law of the life of this city,\ud reappearing everywhere. Walter benjamin and asja lacis, naples in benjamin, oneway street 169.
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