Catastrophe and Survival: Walter Benjamin and Psychoanalysis

In this collection of essays, Stewart (English, Yeshiva U., New York) interprets responses to modern existence by Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German-Jewish philosopher, sociologist, literary critic, and translator; psychoanalysts including Freud, Klein, Lacan, Ferenczi, and Milner; and others. She points out that Benjamin dedicated The Origin of German Tragic Drama (1928) to Carl Schmitt, the German political theorist who helped legitimize Hitler's totalitarianism, because they shared a concern with the anomie of modern life. Mimesis, with its connotations of mimicry, the act of expression, and presentation of the self, is at the core of discussions of these perspectives on the body, materiality, psychosis, the literary and political. Illustrations include art by Paul Klee and patients. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Elizabeth Stewart is Associate Professor of English, Yeshiva University, New York, USA. She teaches courses in European modernism, post-colonial literature, literature and philosophy, and literary and cultural theory. She is the translator and editor of Lacan in the German-Speaking World (SUNY 2004).