Two Different Approaches to the Relationship between Poetry, History and Philosophy: Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger

Mack, Michael

Two Different Approaches to the Relationship between Poetry, History and Philosophy: Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger

Mack, Michael

Authors

Michael Mack

Abstract

This article first shows how an early essay of Walter Benjamin casts poetry as a transcendental mode of potential disruption that swerves away from harmful practices of politics. It then analyses how Benjamin’s understanding of the political dimension of the aesthetic differs from Martin Heidegger’s notion of truth as historical origin. According to Benjamin, art’s as well as technology’s political potential consists in a disturbance of history’s continuity. By breaking the link between the work of art and the aura of its tradition and history, mechanical reproduction helps give birth to the new cosmos of poetry, whose liberating potential Benjamin celebrates in his response to a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin. This article argues that Benjamin is concerned with the social impact of art but in ways different to Heidegger. Rather than subordinating art to historical forces of politics and economics, Benjamin makes us see its intrinsic revolutionary potential.

Citation

Mack, M. (2014). Two Different Approaches to the Relationship between Poetry, History and Philosophy: Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger. New readings, 14, 1-30

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Feb 10, 2014
Publication Date	Jan 1, 2014
Deposit Date	Jun 18, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jun 18, 2015
Journal	New readings.
Print ISSN	1359-7485
Publisher	Cardiff School of Modern Languages
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	14
Pages	1-30
Publisher URL	http://ojs.cf.ac.uk/index.php/newreadings/article/view/111