History and time: the problem of the new beginning in Walter Benjamin’s philosophy

Philosophy

Authors

  • Mariya A. Savina Free University of Berlin, 16–18, Kaiserswerther st., Berlin, 14195, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2020-1-55-64

Keywords:

Benjamin, psychology, subject, crisis, development, history, critical theory, freedom, narrative

Abstract

In his early and especially late works, Walter Benjamin develops his own concepts of history and subject. The latter partly relates to psychoanalytical concepts of subject but differs from those in experimentally and scientifically oriented psychological approaches. Denouncing historicism, which constitutes the basis of the cultural-historical approach in psychology (among others), Benjamin questions both the cyclic and the linear, or progressive, concept of time from the standpoint of the moment of «here and now». In his own words, he conceptualizes time as history that takes place in «now-time of recognizability» (Jetztzeit der Erkennbarkeit). Only that kind of time, according to Benjamin, lets the history take place and begin, differing it from the empty, homogenous flow of mythical time. Benjamin does not solely develop his critique of the myth’s subject. He also critically defines the now-time as history, describing the phenomenological reality of the crisis of subjectivity and the subject of history as such. The paper focuses on the latter and analyzes it with the help of Benjamin’s figures of the storyteller, the critic and the historian, used to describe his own critical work. The paper sheds light on the linguistic nature of the crisis of subjectivity and, in this context, on Benjamin’s ideas of history, freedom and transformation of the subject, as well as on the possibility of something essentially new. In the course of analysis, the author of the article points out some psychological and psychotherapeutic consequences of W. Benjamin’s ideas which can induce psychology to take a critical look at its own understanding of history, subject and development, both from the theoretical and the empirical perspective.

Author Biography

Mariya A. Savina, Free University of Berlin, 16–18, Kaiserswerther st., Berlin, 14195, Germany

MA in Cultural Studies

References

Арендт Х. Жизнь ума. СПб.: Наука, 2013. 517 с.

Беньямин В. Озарения. М.: Мартис, 2000. 376 с.

Беньямин В. Происхождение немецкой барочной драмы. М.: Аграф, 2002. 288 с.

Беньямин В. Рассказчик // Маски времени. Эссе о культуре и литературе / пер. с нем. и фр.; под ред. А. Белобратова. СПб.: Symposium, 2004. С. 383–418.

Беньямин В. Задача переводчика // Учение о подобии. Медиаэстетические произведения: сб. статей. М.: РГГУ, 2012. С. 254–270.

Беньямин В. О языке вообще и о языке человека // Учение о подобии. Медиаэстетические произведения: сб. статей. М.: РГГУ, 2012. С. 7–26.

Беньямин В. Улица с односторонним движением: пер. с нем. М.: Ад Маргинем Пресс, 2012. 128 с.

Мамардашвили М.К. Классический и неклассический идеалы рациональности. М.: Азбука, 2010. 288 с.

Ницше Ф. Несвоевременные размышления // Ницше Ф. Полн. собр. соч.: в 13 т. М.: Культурная Революция, 2014. Т. 1, ч. 2. 480 c.

Пузырей А.А. Культурно-историческая теория Л.С. Выготского и современная психология. М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1986. 117 с.

Пузырей А.А. Психология. Психотехника. Психагогика. М.: Смысл, 2005. 680 с.

Розин В.М. От взглядов Л.С. Выготского к современной концепции развития // Психология. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. 2016. Т. 13, № 2. С. 367–385.

Хайдеггер М. Основные понятия метафизики. СПб.: Владимир Даль, 2013. 592 с.

Ясперс К. Философия. Кн. 2: Просветление экзистенции. М.: Канон+, 2012. 448 c.

Benjamin W. Das Passagen-Werk // Gesammelte Schriften: in VII Bd. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991. Bd. V. 1354 S.

Benjamin W. Kierkegaard. Das Ende des philosophischen Idealismus // Gesammelte Schriften: in VII Bd. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991. Bd. III. S. 380–383.

Emden C. Walter Benjamins Archäologie der Moderne: Kulturwissenschaft um 1930. München: Fink, 2006. 184 S.

Critical Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis and Counselling / ed. by D. Loewenthal. L., UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 309 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137460585

Horkheimer M. Traditionelle und kritische Theorie // Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. 1937. Bd. 6, nr. 2. S. 245–294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/zfs19376265

Saar M. Genealogie als Kritik. Geschichte und Theorie des Subjekts nach Nietzsche und Foucault. Frankfurt; N.Y.: Campus Verlag, 2007. 383 S.

Schlüsseltexte der Kritischen Theorie / A. Honneth (Hg.). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006. 414 S. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90227-2

Schmider C., Werner M. Das Baudelaire-Buch // Benjamin Handbuch. Stuttgart; Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2006. S. 567–584.

Wiegmann J. Psychoanalytische Geschichtstheorie: eine Studie zur Freud-Rezeption Walter Benjamins. Bonn: Bouvier, 1989. 128 S.

References

Arendt, H. (2013). Zhizn’ uma [The life of the mind]. Saint-Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 517 p.

Benjamin, W. (1991). Das Passagen-Werk [The arcades-project]. Gesammelte Schriften: in VII Bänden [Walter Benjamin: Selected works: in 7 vols]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Publ., vol. 5, 1354 p.

Benjamin, W. (1991). Kierkegaard. Das Ende des Philosophischen Idealismus [Gesammelte Schriften: in VII Bänden [Walter Benjamin: Selected works: in 7 vols]. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Publ., vol. 3, pp. 380–383.

Benjamin, W. (2000). Ozareniya [Illuminations]. Moscow: Martis Publ., 376 p.

Benjamin, W. (2012). O yazyke voobsche i o yazyke cheloveka [On language as such and on the language of man]. Uchenie o podobii. Mediaesteticheskie proizvedeniya: [Doctrine of the similar. Media aesthetic works]. Moscow: RSHU Publ., pp. 7–26.

Benjamin, W. (2002). Proiskhozhdenie nemetskoy barochnoy dramy [The origin of German tragic drama]. Moscow: Agraf Publ., 288 p.

Benjamin, W. (2004). Rasskazchik [Storyteller]. Maski vremeni. Esse o kul’ture i literature, pod red. Belobratova A. Per. s nem.i fr. [The masks of time. Essays about culture and literature, ed. by A. Belobratov. Trans. from German and French]. Saint-Petersburg: Symposium Publ., pp. 383–418.

Benjamin, W. (2012). Ulitsa s odnostoronnim dvizheniem [One-way Street]. Moscow: Ad Marginem Publ., 128 p.

Benjamin, W. (2012). Zadacha perevodchika [The task of the translator]. Uchenie o podobii. Mediaesteticheskie proizvedeniya [Doctrine of the similar. Media aesthetic works]. Moscow: RSHU Publ., pp. 254–270.

Emden, C. (2006). Walter Benjamins Archäologie der Moderne: Kulturwissenschaft um 1930 [Walter Benjamin’s archeology of modern: cultural studies around 1930]. Munich: Fink Publ., 184 p.

Jaspers, K. (2012). Filosofiya. Kn. 2: Prosvetlenie ekzistentsii [Philosophy. Book 2: Lighting of existence]. Moscow: Kanon+ Publ., 448 p.

Heidegger, M. (2013). Osnovnye ponyatiya metafiziki [The fundamental concepts of metaphysics]. Saint-Petersburg: Vladimir Dal’ Publ., 592 p.

Honneth, A. (ed.) (2006). Schlüsseltexte der Kritischen Theorie [Key texts of a critical theory]. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Publ., 414 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90227-2

Horkheimer, M. (1937). Traditionelle und kritische Theorie [Traditional and critical theory]. Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung [Journal of Social Studies]. Vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 245–294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/zfs19376265

Loewenthal, D. (ed.) (2015). Critical psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and counselling. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan Publ., 309 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137460585

Mamardashvili, M.K. (2010). Klassicheskiy i neklassicheskiy idealy ratsional’nosti [Classic and non-classic ideals of rationality]. Moscow: Azbuka Publ., 288 p.

Nietzsche, F. (2014). Nesvoevremennye razmyshleniya [Untimely meditations]. Polnoe sobranie sochineniy: v 13 t. [The complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche: in 13 vols]. Moscow: Kul’turnaya Revolyutsiya Publ., vol. 1, pt. 2, 480 p.

Puzyrey, A.A. (1986). Kul’turno-istoricheskaya teoriya L.S. Vygotskogo i sovremennaya psikhologiya [Cultural-historical theory by L.S. Vygotsky and the contemporary psychology]. Moscow: MSU Publ., 117 p.

Puzyrey, A.A. (2005). Psikhologiya. Psikhotekhnika. Psikhagogika [Psychology. Psychotechnic. Psychagogy]. Moscow: Smysl Publ., 680 p.

Rozin, V.M. (2016). Ot vzglyadov L.S. Vygotskogo k sovremennoy kontseptsii razvitiya [From L.S. Vygotsky’s views to the contemporary conception of development]. Psikhologiya. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki [Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics]. Vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 367–385.

Saar, M. (2007). Genealogie als Kritik. Geschichte und Theorie des Subjekts nach Nietzsche und Foucault [Geneology as critique. History and theory of subject after Nietzsche and Foucault]. New York: Campus Verlag Publ., 383 p.

Schmider, C. and Werner, M. (2006). Das Baudelaire-Buch [The Baudelaire Book]. Benjamin Handbuch [Benjamin handbook]. Stuttgart, Weimar: J.B. Metzler Publ., pp. 567–584.

Wiegmann, J. (1989). Psychoanalytische Geschichtstheorie: eine Studie zur Freud-Rezeption Walter Benjamins [Psychoanalytical theory of history: the study on Walter Benjamin’s reception of Freud]. Bonn: Bouvier Publ., 128 p.

Published

2020-03-30

Issue

Section

Статьи