
Illuminations
Essays and Reflections
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
About this listen
Walter Benjamin was an icon of criticism, renowned for his insight on art, literature, and philosophy. This volume includes his views on Kafka, with whom he felt a close personal affinity; his studies on Baudelaire and Proust; and his essays on Leskov and Brecht’s epic theater. Illuminations also includes his penetrating study “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, an enlightening discussion of translation as a literary mode, and his theses on the philosophy of history.
Hannah Arendt selected the essays for this volume and introduces them with a classic essay about Benjamin’s life in a dark historical era. Leon Wieseltier’s preface explores Benjamin’s continued relevance for our times.
©1955 Originally published in Germany by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt a.M. © 1955 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt a.M. English translation © 1968 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Introduction © 1968 by Hannah Arendt (P)2021 by Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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A companion volume to Illuminations, the first collection of Walter Benjamin’s writings, Reflections presents a further sampling of his wide-ranging work. 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, and provides travelogues of various cities, including Moscow under Stalin.
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W. B. Writes beautiful long sentences. yea!
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-
-
W. B. Writes beautiful long sentences. yea!
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By: Walter Benjamin
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- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Hannah Arendt's insightful observations of the modern world, based on a profound knowledge of the past, constitute an impassioned contribution to political philosophy. In Between Past and Future, Arendt describes the perplexing crises modern society faces as a result of the loss of meaning of the traditional key words of politics: justice, reason, responsibility, virtue, and glory. Through a series of eight exercises, she shows how we can redistill the vital essence of these concepts and use them to regain a frame of reference for the future.
-
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-
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By: Achille Mbembe, and others
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
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- Unabridged
-
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Performance
-
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-
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What listeners say about Illuminations
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- GayIsGreat
- 06-07-23
Narrator’s voice is low and often unvaried in pitch, making it very hard to hear in a car
But the essays are wonderful. Grateful to finally have these in audio. Pls keep the theory and philosophy coming!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Daniel Benedict
- 01-22-22
Excellent all around
Absolutely wonderful. Transcendent. Will be reading more Walter Benjamin at my first opportunity. Narration was very good as well.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 12-08-21
finally
finally some Walter Benjamin, there hasn't been a scrap of his work on here and I for one I'm grateful to finally be able to listen to some it was incredible
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4 people found this helpful
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- Maria Isabel de Pina
- 04-02-25
This book is fascinating in the way it opens one’s mind
I loved hearing this book, although ai feel I will need to read it myself in order to take in its contents at my own pace
The narration was fine but for the readings of the passages or names in German or French
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