Open Access
American Research Journal of English and Literature
ISSN (Online): 2378-9026
DOI: 10.46568/arjel
Walter Benjamin: Melancholy and Revolution
Researcher at CFUL, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa (Faculty of Arts, Lisbon University), Portugal.
Maria João Cantinho, “Walter Benjamin: Melancholy and Revolution”, American Research Journal of English
and Literature, Vol 8, no. 1, 2022, pp. 86-92.
Abstract
From a very young age, Walter Benjamin’s influences were anarchism, revolutionary pre-romanticism and messianism.
His paradigmatic text “The Life of Students” (1915) is from this phase, as well as other texts that reveal his thinking at
the same time. Later, in 1924, Benjamin was confronted with dialectical materialism, based on Luckács’ work, History
and Class Consciousness, under the influence of Asja Lascis. These three streaks referred to here (messianism, dialectical
materialism and anarchism) constitute, throughout his work, the fabric that would give rise to his most finished thought,
namely that which is expressed in his last text, “On the Concept of History”. As we intend to emphasize in this text, the idea
of revolution is the most evident line in his last work, taking it as the expression of class struggle and, at the same time, of
messianism. Here, we analyse these trends that ran through the philosopher’s thought and texts, during the thirties and
until his death, in 1940, in the adverse context of fascism.
