Benjamin and Brecht: The Story of a Friendship

ISBN-13: 9781784781125 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 280 str.

Erdmut Wizisla

Opis

Erdmut Wizisla s groundbreaking work explores the important friendship between Walter Benjamin, the acclaimed critic and literary theorist, and Bertolt Brecht, one of the twentieth century s most influential playwrights, directors and poets, during the crucial interwar years. From the first meeting between Benjamin and Brecht to their experiences in exile, the events in this friendship are illuminated by personal correspondence, journal entries, and notes including previously unpublished materials from the friends electric discussions of shared projects. Wizisla s examination of the friendship between Benjamin and Brecht, two artists at the height of their creative powers during a time of great political crisis, throws light on nearly two decades of European intellectual life."

Recenzje

"If this book had appeared decades ago, it would have terminated an unproductive debate in one fell swoop: that of the influence-be it fruitful, be it disastrous-of probably the most significant German playwright and poet of the 20th century, Bertolt Brecht, on probably the most significant critic of his day, Walter Benjamin ... Scrupulous, scholarly, and written with loving commitment."
-Momme Brodersen, author of Walter Benjamin, A Biography

"What emerges from this rich selection of materials is not merely a fuller picture of these towering figures but also of the working life of intellectual production,deliberation, and publication on the part of a vibrant scene of letters, culture, and activism under threat of imminent dissolution."
-Henry Sussman, Yale University

"With great archival expertise, Wizisla captures the spontaneity, energy, and excitement of Benjamin's and Brecht's thinking in process; their efforts to arrive at an aesthetic that expresses Communist practice; and their struggle tocome to terms with Soviet reality under Stalin."
-Gitta Honegger, Arizona State University

"Wizisla's story of artistic and political radicalism in the darkest of times is a landmark publication. These two friends 'inhabited' their times supremely well; their traces ought to inspire us in ours."
- Independent

O autorze

Erdmut Wizisla is the Director of the Brecht and the Benjamin Archives in Berlin, and an Honorary Professor of German Literature at Humbolt University of Berlin.