THE INTRICATION OF POLITICAL AND RHETORICAL INQUIRY IN WALTER BENJAMIN
Scholars have largely ignored Walter Benjamin's assertion that his work was a continuation of initiatives begun by Giambattista Vico and Carl Gustav Jochmann. But Benjamin's assertion is important. It situates his work in a tradition of rhetorical inquiry. In turn, rhetorical
inquiry ought to be understood as a form of political thought. This article traces the intrication and development of Benjamin's rhetorical and political interests from his early work on Trauerspiel through a sequence of texts written before and after the fall of the Weimar Republic in
1933, up to and including the various redactions of the 'Kunstwerk' essay.
Keywords: Carl Gustav Jochmann; Giambattista Vico; Walter Benjamin; Weimar Republic; intellectual history; political theory; rhetoric
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 2013
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