Benjamins zeitdiagnostische Rezensionstätigkeit zwischen Text und Kontexten. Exemplarische Analysen eines Spannungsverhältnisses

Abstract

This article focuses on the strategies and procedures of Benjamin’s critical reviewing activity in its journalistic contexts. The subject of the investigation is his positive review of a bibliophile edition of Goethe’s Farbenlehre from 1928. At the same time, he writes in Einbahnstraße that the medium of the book has become antiquated. How do these two opposing statements relate to each other? The study will examine this contrast in the context of debates in the Literarische Welt, in which Benjamin’s review was published. The contrast suggests that new descriptions are necessary for Benjamin’s role as reviewer. Benjamin writes his review not from a position of strong authorship, but rather as a ‘journalistic actor’ in critical debates. (KD, in German)