History of Material Texts invite you to:
 
“Walter Benjamin’s Manuscripts: Reading the ‘Thesis on History’”

Liliane Weissberg, German, Penn

The German philosopher, writer, and translator Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a meticulous writer. Many of his essays and reviews exist in multiple manuscript versions that give evidence of a laborious process of revision and recasting, often over long stretches of time.  While Benjamin's work has been widely read and enthusiastically received in the United States in recent years, the mode of the production of his texts has received less attention. Thus, the recent edition of his works edited by Michael Jennings and published by Harvard University Press proceeds chronologically, even though Benjamin's constant revisions would put such a chronology into question. The present workshop will focus on one particular text, Benjamin's so-called "Theses on History." We will study and discuss the manuscript, and try to relate its specific, and perhaps surprising form of production to Benjamin's philosophical statements.
 
For more information, please contact Marla Pagan-Mattos (marpagan@sas.upenn.edu )