Zijin Xiao
MA Student, UChicago Divinity School
Benjamin, Rilke, and the Problem of Experience in Modernity
Thursday, November 20th, 5:00 PM, Swift Hall, Room 207
The workshop will consist of a brief introduction followed by discussion. We will focus on pre-circulated book chapters, which can be accessed here
Abstract
Walter Benjamin and Rainer Maria Rilke are two well-acknowledged thinkers and artists among those who seek to tackle the question of modernity. Though Benjamin, who is slightly younger than Rilke, seldom comments directly on Rilke’s works and thoughts, a comparison between the two scholars can appear insightful as a continuation of the tension between Marx and Kierkegaard, with the former being an unorthodox Marxist and the latter an admirer of the Danish philosopher. In this paper, I seek to present how the problem of experience in modernity appears differently in both thinkers’ works. Focusing mostly on Benjamin’s essay “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” and Rilke’s Duino Elegies as well as his novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, this paper examines how memory or the past plays a central part in perception in both thinkers, and seeks to compare how subjectivity is either excluded or reconstructed in relation to the past, for a seemingly common goal of redemption.
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The Workshop on the Philosophy of Religions is committed to being a fully accessible and inclusive workshop. Please contact Workshop Coordinators Halley Haruta (haruta@uchicago.edu) or Yeti Kang (hkang01@uchicago.edu) in order to make any arrangements necessary to facilitate your participation in workshop events.