Moscow Diary
by Walter Benjamin
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The life of the German-Jewish literary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is a veritable allegory of the life of letters in the twentieth century. Benjamin's intellectual odyssey culminated in his death by suicide on the Franco-Spanish border, pursued by the Nazis, but long before he had traveled to the Soviet Union. His stunning account of that journey is unique among Benjamin's writings for the frank, merciless way he struggles with his motives and conscience. Perhaps the show more primary reason for his trip was his affection for Asja Lācis, a Latvian Bolshevik whom he had first met in Capri in 1924 and who would remain an important intellectual and erotic influence on him throughout the twenties and thirties. Asja Lācis resided in Moscow, eking out a living as a journalist, and Benjamin's diary is, on one level, the account of his masochistic love affair with this elusive--and rather unsympathetic--object of desire. On another level, it is the story of a failed romance with the Russian Revolution; for Benjamin had journeyed to Russia not only to inform himself firsthand about Soviet society, but also to arrive at an eventual decision about joining the Communist Party. Benjamin's diary paints the dilemma of a writer seduced by the promises of the Revolution yet unwilling to blinker himself to its human and institutional failings. Moscow Diary is more than a record of ideological ambivalence; its literary value is considerable. Benjamin is one of the great twentieth-century physiognomists of the city, and his portrait of hibernal Moscow stands beside his brilliant evocations of Berlin, Naples, Marseilles, and Paris. Students of this particularly interesting period will find Benjamin's eyewitness account of Moscow extraordinarily illuminating. show lessTags
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A very personal look into Walter Benjamin's life from Decemeber 6, 1926 to February 1, 1927. Within is some of the disillusion that Benjamin experiences with Russia, communism and love (Asja Lacis). This would not be very interesting if you have not read Benjamin's perspicuous essays in culture and literature. But if you have read his essays, this diary conveys a more human Benjamin.
Diario de Moscú narra el viaje que Walter Benjamin realizó a Moscú entre diciembre de 1926 y febrero de 1927 con la intención de convertirse en testigo directo de la realidad comunista, el bolchevismo de una ciudad intensamente fría, y de retomar a un tiempo la calidez de una interrumpida relación sentimental con la actriz Asja Lacis, por entonces enferma y unida al dramaturgo Bernhard Reich, con la que comparte momentos del día a día vividos y descritos por Benjamin con especial intensidad.
Oct 10, 2017Spanish
Diario de Moscú narra el viaje que Walter Benjamin realizó a Moscú entre diciembre de 1926 y febrero de 1927 con la intención de convertirse en testigo directo de la realidad comunista, el bolchevismo de una ciudad intensamente fría, y de retomar a un tiempo la calidez de una interrumpida relación sentimental con la actriz Asja Lacis, por entonces enferma y unida al dramaturgo Bernhard Reich, con la que comparte momentos del día a día vividos y descritos por Benjamin con especial intensidad.
Apr 27, 2017Spanish
El libro recoge las experiencias vividas por Benjamín desde su llegada a oscu, el 6 de diciembre de 1926, hasta su partida, el 1 de febrero de 1927.
Jun 11, 2013Spanish
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Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator and philosopher associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.
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- Fiction and Literature, Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism
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- 838.91203 — Literature & rhetoric German & related literatures German miscellaneous writings 1900- 1900-1990 1900-1945 Diaries, journals, notebooks, reminiscences
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- PT2603 .E455 .Z4713 — Language and Literature German, Dutch and Scandinavian literatures German literature Individual authors or works 1860/70-1960
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