Unpacking Benjamin
Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting"
3 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2013
Date Written: 1988
Abstract
This is a note on Walter Benjamin's essay on collecting, "Unpacking My Library" (orig. published in German in 1931). Benjamin's reflections on collecting are analyzed with reference to Modernist themes in Baudelaire and Proust, and to the Modernist concern with memory in the structuring of the self. The essay is held to be a half-ironic self-portrait showing some tensions or uncertainties in Benjamin's class positioning and allegiances.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Garcia Landa, Jose Angel, Unpacking Benjamin (1988). Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting" , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2294964
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