The Whitney Humanities Center (WHC) will host a conference on the work of philosopher and cultural theorist Walter Benjamin on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26 and 27. The program, titled "Angelus Novus: Perspectives on Walter Benjamin," is cosponsored by the WHC, the department of Germanic languages and literatures, and the Goethe Institute Boston. Admission is free, and the public is welcome.
Walter Benjamin is considered "one of the most important philosophers, literary critics and theorists of culture and the media in this century," according to Winfried Menninghaus, visiting professor of Germanic languages and literatures, who organized the conference.
Born in Berlin in 1892, Benjamin was educated in Germany but moved to France in the 1930s to escape Nazi persecution. In 1940, while fleeing the Nazi occupation forces in France, Benjamin committed suicide just after crossing the border into Spain.
In his work, Benjamin expresses his belief that philosophy, literature, film and architecture are closely interrelated. His book "The Origin of the German Baroque Drama (Mourning Play)," in which he reintroduced allegory as a key concept of literary criticism, influenced generations of critics. Early in his career, Benjamin focused on questions of language, myth and truth. Later in his career, his attention turned primarily to dealing with the "physiognomy of the city, reading the big city like a forest of signs," says Professor Menninghaus. It was during this time that Benjamin originated major theories of film, photography and architecture.
Much of Benjamin's work has not been available in English until recently, when the Harvard University Press released the first volume in its edition of his writings.
All sessions of "Angelus Novus: Perspectives on Walter Benjamin" will be held in the WHC, 53 Wall St. The conference will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday with opening remarks by Professor Menninghaus. A panel moderated by Professor Brigitte Peucker of Yale will follow. The panelists will be Horst Bredekamp of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany; Gary Smith of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany; and Fredric Jameson of Duke University. The day will conclude with a reception at 5:45 p.m. in Rm. 208, WHC.
Saturday's program will begin at 10 a.m. with a panel moderated by Professor Peter Brooks of Yale, who is acting director of the WHC. Panelists will be Rosalind Krauss of Columbia University and Miriam Hansen of the University of Chicago.
The conference will continue at 2 p.m. with a panel moderated by Professor Tyrus Miller of Yale. Panelists will be Professor Shoshana Felman of Yale and Stanley Cavell of Harvard University. The event will conclude with remarks by Professor Geoffrey Hartman of Yale.
For further information, call 432-0670.