Baudelaire, Benjamin and Buck
The 3 B's! (I'm still working on this piece).
When i was in university in Glasgow one of the most interesting things I read was in a course on the Sociology of Culture, which still influences me today. Lecturers Mike Scott (also a painter, who died very early, only aged about 63. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike!) and Tim Cloudsley (also a poet and now in South America) introduced us to "a strange and interesting man" called Walter Benjamin:
"A German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism and Jewish mysticism. Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School..."
His studies into Baudelaire as a poet of modern city life and the concept of the flaneur especially interested me. These include:
On Some motifs in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1939.
Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1938.
Baudelaire or the Streets of Paris, part of the long essay Paris - the Capital of the Nineteenth Century - which was, i think, first published after his death, in 1955, in German.
Central Park - written in 1939 but also not published till 1955.
Benjamin's writings on Baudelaire are collected together into various different books, including:
Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project
Beatrice Hanssen (ed)
Walter Benjamin: Modernity
edited by Peter Osborne
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, 4: 1938–1940
Edited by Howard Eiland
Michael W. Jennings
The writer of modern life some essays on Charles Baudelaire
Walter Benjamin - Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire
The 3 B's! (I'm still working on this piece).
When i was in university in Glasgow one of the most interesting things I read was in a course on the Sociology of Culture, which still influences me today. Lecturers Mike Scott (also a painter, who died very early, only aged about 63. Thanks for the inspiration, Mike!) and Tim Cloudsley (also a poet and now in South America) introduced us to "a strange and interesting man" called Walter Benjamin:
"A German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism and Jewish mysticism. Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. He was associated with the Frankfurt School..."
His studies into Baudelaire as a poet of modern city life and the concept of the flaneur especially interested me. These include:
On Some motifs in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1939.
Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1938.
Baudelaire or the Streets of Paris, part of the long essay Paris - the Capital of the Nineteenth Century - which was, i think, first published after his death, in 1955, in German.
Central Park - written in 1939 but also not published till 1955.
Benjamin's writings on Baudelaire are collected together into various different books, including:
Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project
Beatrice Hanssen (ed)
Walter Benjamin: Modernity
edited by Peter Osborne
Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, 4: 1938–1940
Edited by Howard Eiland
Michael W. Jennings
The writer of modern life some essays on Charles Baudelaire
Walter Benjamin - Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire
And especially this:
Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism by Walter Benjamin
(Harry Zohn translator).
Originally published in 1973 and the book we had on our course in Glasgow. This is the contents page of that book, and under it the 'sources from' page in that book which tells us where Benjamin's writing first appeared or where first collected in English:
Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism by Walter Benjamin
(Harry Zohn translator).
Originally published in 1973 and the book we had on our course in Glasgow. This is the contents page of that book, and under it the 'sources from' page in that book which tells us where Benjamin's writing first appeared or where first collected in English:
The 3rd B here is Buck, to be precise Susan Buck-Morss, whose article I re-read recently:
The Flaneur, the Sandwichman and the Whore: The Politics of Loitering, Susan Buck-Morss 1986. Some of it may strike people as a good example of the 'fancy long words which dont really mean much' school of sociology or cultural studies. However I got some interesting things from it. These two pages towards the end especially make good and important points interconnecting the flanuer to the wider societal and economic situation:
See the whole article here, its about 40 pages:
https://vdocuments.mx/the-flaneur-the-sandwichman-and-the-whore-the-politics-of-loitering-authors-.html
Places to read Benjamin's other essays connected to Baudelaire:
On Some motifs in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1939.
Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1938.
Baudelaire or the Streets of Paris, part of the long essay Paris - the Capital of the Nineteenth Century - which was, i think, first published after his death, in 1955, in German.
Central Park
https://vdocuments.mx/walter-benjamin-central-park.html
https://vdocuments.mx/the-flaneur-the-sandwichman-and-the-whore-the-politics-of-loitering-authors-.html
Places to read Benjamin's other essays connected to Baudelaire:
On Some motifs in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1939.
Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire - first published in German in 1938.
Baudelaire or the Streets of Paris, part of the long essay Paris - the Capital of the Nineteenth Century - which was, i think, first published after his death, in 1955, in German.
Central Park
https://vdocuments.mx/walter-benjamin-central-park.html