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Critique and Sacrifice: Benjamin–Kommerell
Author(s) -
Goebel Eckart
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the german quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.11
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1756-1183
pISSN - 0016-8831
DOI - 10.1111/gequ.10203
Subject(s) - german , german literature , enlightenment , mythology , philosophy , literature , movie theater , art history , ideology , george (robot) , poetry , art , politics , theology , linguistics , political science , law
The essay provides a close reading of Walter Benjamin's review Wider ein Meisterwerk , which is a stylistic and philosophical masterpiece itself. I trace some of the numerous allusions to the heritage of German poetry and prose from Goethe to George via Jean Paul that Benjamin weaves into his text in order to testify to his loving closeness to German literature and, at the same time, his uncompromising distance to fascist German ideology. Benjamin deciphers Max Kommerell's Habilitationsschrift on Der Dichter als Führer in der deutschen Klassik as a failed attempt to stabilize charismatic leadership. Benjamin's meticulous reconstruction of Kommerell's art of physiognomic portraiture and proto‐constructivist reinvention of German (literary) history shows not only his indebtedness to the George Circle but also his farewell to its seductive powers: Kommerell's myth falls prey to blood and soil, while Benjamin sacrifices the German myth on the altar of the dialectic of enlightenment.