Daniel Bensaïd (1946–2010) was a leading figure of May ’68, a Marxist thinker and an influential French public intellectual. His theoretical and political trajectory is divided into two distinct periods separated by the historical turn of 1989: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the ussr. This also coincided with an existential turn due to his contracting aids, which brought him close to death. After this turn, he played the role of a ‘border-crosser’ between generations, intellectual currents and geopolitical areas within the radical left. In the 1990s, he began a critical rereading of Marx and tried to transcend Trotskyism, confronting its legacy with other currents of critical thought, notably the Frankfurt School. Since this pivotal moment, his writings reveal a permanent and intense dialogue with the work of Walter Benjamin, which he reinterpreted in a contemporary, political perspective, rethinking the political dilemmas of the twenty-first century through a Messianic vision of history. This article emphasises the affinities between two historical constellations – 1939 and 1989 – which, in spite of their obvious differences, were equally shaped by a feeling of defeat, and allowed a fruitful ‘encounter’ between French and German philosophers.
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Anderson Perry Considerations on Western Marxism 1976 London New Left Books
Anderson Perry In the Tracks of Historical Materialism 1983 London Verso
Arendt Hannah ‘Walter Benjamin, 1892–1940’ Men in Dark Times 1973 Harmondsworth Penguin
Benjamin Walter Jephcott Edward & Shorter K. One-Way Street and Other Writings 1979 London New Left Books
Benjamin Walter Sieburth Richard Moscow Diary 1986 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Benjamin Walter Bullock Marcus & Jennings Michael W. ‘Critique of Violence’ Selected Writings, Volume 1: 1913–1926 1996 Cambridge, MA Belknap Press
Benjamin Walter Eiland Howard & McLaughlin Kevin The Arcades Project 1999a Cambridge, MA Belknap Press
Benjamin Walter Jennings Michael W. , Eiland Howard & Smith Gary ‘Theories of German Fascism’ Selected Writings, Volume 2: Part 1: 1927–1930 1999b Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Benjamin Walter Eiland Howard & Jennings Michael W. ‘Theological-Political Fragment’ Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935–1938 2002 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Benjamin Walter Bostock Anna ‘Conversations with Brecht’ Understanding Brecht 2003 London Verso
Benjamin Walter Jennings Michael W. , Eiland Howard & Smith Gary ‘Surrealism’ Selected Writings, Volume 2: Part 1: 1927–1930 2005 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Benjamin Walter Eiland Howard & Jennings Michael W. ‘Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century’ Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935–1938 2006 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Benjamin Walter Arendt Hannah ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ Illuminations: Essays and Reflections 2007a New York Schocken Books
Benjamin Walter Arendt Hannah ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History’ Illuminations: Essays and Reflections 2007b New York Schocken Books
Bensaïd Daniel Moi, la Révolution: Remembrances d’une bicentenaire indigne 1989 Paris Gallimard
Bensaïd Daniel Walter Benjamin: Sentinelle Messianique 1990 Paris Plon
Bensaïd Daniel Jeanne de guerre lasse 1991 Paris Gallimard
Bensaïd Daniel La Discordance des temps 1995a Paris Les Éditions de la Passion
Bensaïd Daniel Marx l’intempestif. Grandeurs et misères d’une aventure critique (XIXe–XXe siècles) 1995b Paris Fayard
Bensaïd Daniel Le pari mélancolique. Métamorphoses de la politique, politique des métamorphoses 1997 Paris Fayard
Bensaïd Daniel Résistances. Essai de taupologie générale 2001 Paris Fayard
Bensaïd Daniel Les Trotskysmes 2002 Paris Presses Universitaires de France
Bensaïd Daniel Une lente impatience 2004 Paris Stock
Bensaïd Daniel Fragments mécréants I: Sur les mythes identitaires et la République imaginaire 2005 Paris Lignes
Bensaïd Daniel Éloge de la politique profane 2008a Paris Albin Michel
Bensaïd Daniel Fragments mécréants II: Un nouveau théologien, Bernard-Henry Lévy 2008b Paris Lignes
Bensaïd Daniel Marx, mode d’emploi 2009 Paris Zones
Bensaïd Daniel Walter Benjamin: Sentinelle Messianique 2010 Paris Les Prairies ordinaires
Bensaïd Daniel & Weber Henri Mai 68, une répétition générale 1968 Paris Maspero
Deutscher Isaac The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays 1968 London Oxford University Press
Eagleton Terry Walter Benjamin: or, Towards a Revolutionary Criticism 1981 London New Left Books
Fuld Werner Walter Benjamin, zwischen den Stühlen: eine Biographie 1979 Munich Hanser
Goldmann Lucien Thody Philip The Hidden God: A Study of Tragic Vision in the Pensées of Pascal and the Tragedies of Racine 1964 New York Humanities Press
Gramsci Antonio Gerratana Valentino Quaderni del Carcere 1975 Turin Einaudi
Heil Susanne ‘Gefährliche Beziehungen’. Walter Benjamin und Carl Schmitt 1996 Stuttgart J.B. Metzler
Hering Christoph Die Rekonstruktion der Revolution. Walter Benjamins messianischer Materialismus in den Thesen ‘Über den Begriff der Geschichte’ 1983 Frankfurt Peter Lang
Kaplan Steven L. Farewell, Revolution: Disputed Legacies: France 1789/1989 1995 Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press
Koselleck Reinhart Tribe Keith ‘ “Space of Experience” and “Horizon of Expectation”: Two Historical Categories’ Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time 1985 Cambridge, MA The MIT Press
Kraft Werner Unseld Siegfried ‘Über Benjamin’ Zur Aktualität Walter Benjamins 1972 Frankfurt Suhrkamp
Leslie Esther Walter Benjamin: Overpowering Conformism 2000 London Pluto Press
Löwy Michael Heaney Hope Redemption and Utopia: Jewish Libertarian Thought in Central Europe. A Study in Elective Affinity 1992 Stanford Stanford University Press
Löwy Michael Turner Chris Fire Alarm: Reading Walter Benjamin’s ‘On the Concept of History’ 2005 London Verso
Marcuse Herbert Bulthaup Peter ‘Revolution und Kritik der Gewalt. Zur Geschichtsphilosophie Walter Benjamins’ Materialien zu Walter Benjamins Thesen ‘Über den Begriff der Geschichte’ 1975 Frankfurt Suhrkamp
Marx Karl & Engels Friedrich The Communist Manifesto 2012 London Verso
Moses Stéphane Harshav Barbara The Angel of History: Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem 2009 Stanford Stanford University Press
Scholem Gershom ‘Toward an Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism’ The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality 1971 New York Schocken Books
Scholem Gershom Zohn Harry Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship 1988 New York Schocken Books
Stutje Jan Willem Beck Christopher & Drucker Peter Ernest Mandel: A Rebel’s Dream Deferred 2009 London Verso
Traverso Enzo ‘Benjamin und Trotzki’ Das Argument 1997 5 222 697 704
Traverso Enzo À feu et à sang. De la guerre civile européenne 1914–1945 2007 Paris Stock
Anderson 1983, p. 32.
Bensaïd 2004, p. 451.
Bensaïd 1989.
Bensaïd 1991.
Bensaïd 2002.
Anderson 1976.
Bensaïd 2004, p. 361.
Bensaïd 2004, p. 449.
Bensaïd 2005 and 2008b.
Bensaïd 2004, p. 69.
Bensaïd 2004, p. 449.
Bensaïd and Weber 1968.
Bensaïd 1995a.
Bensaïd 1995a, p. 110. See also Gramsci 1975, p. 1403.
Bensaïd 1995b, p. 187.
Koselleck 1985, pp. 267–88.
Bensaïd 2009, Chapter 5.
Bensaïd 1990 and 2010. According to the dates ending the book, it had been written in Paris between March and June 1990.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 7.
Benjamin 2007a, p. 242.
Arendt 1973, p. 168.
Bensaïd 2004, p. 364. On Mandel, see Stutje 2009.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 124.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 39.
Bensaïd 1989, p. 230.
Bensaïd 1989, p. 231.
Bensaïd 1989, p. 230. On the debates raised by this commemoration, see Kaplan 1995.
Benjamin 1979, p. 80.
Benjamin 1999a, p. 460.
Bensaïd 2001, pp. 15–16.
Fuld 1979.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 36.
Benjamin 1986 and Benjamin 2003.
Benjamin 2005. On Benjamin and Trotsky, see Kraft 1972, p. 69; Traverso 1997; and Leslie 2000, pp. 228–34.
Scholem 1971, p. 12.
Marcuse 1975, pp. 26–7.
Benjamin 2007b, p. 255.
Benjamin 2007b, p. 257.
Benjamin 1999b.
Bensaïd 1995a, p. 13.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 182.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 169; Benjamin 1999a, pp. 388–9.
Benjamin 2007b, p. 264.
Benjamin 1996.
Benjamin 2002.
Moses 2009.
Deutscher 1968.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 155.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 275.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 230.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 249.
Bensaïd 1995b, p. 208.
Scholem 1971, pp. 13–14.
Benjamin 2006, pp. 33–4.
Benjamin 2007b, p. 255.
Moses 2009, p. 108.
Marx and Engels 2012, p. 74.
Bensaïd 2010, p. 97.
Benjamin 2007b, p. 260.
Bensaïd 1997 and Goldmann 1964.
Bensaïd 1997, p. 290.
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Daniel Bensaïd (1946–2010) was a leading figure of May ’68, a Marxist thinker and an influential French public intellectual. His theoretical and political trajectory is divided into two distinct periods separated by the historical turn of 1989: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the ussr. This also coincided with an existential turn due to his contracting aids, which brought him close to death. After this turn, he played the role of a ‘border-crosser’ between generations, intellectual currents and geopolitical areas within the radical left. In the 1990s, he began a critical rereading of Marx and tried to transcend Trotskyism, confronting its legacy with other currents of critical thought, notably the Frankfurt School. Since this pivotal moment, his writings reveal a permanent and intense dialogue with the work of Walter Benjamin, which he reinterpreted in a contemporary, political perspective, rethinking the political dilemmas of the twenty-first century through a Messianic vision of history. This article emphasises the affinities between two historical constellations – 1939 and 1989 – which, in spite of their obvious differences, were equally shaped by a feeling of defeat, and allowed a fruitful ‘encounter’ between French and German philosophers.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 886 | 94 | 7 |
Full Text Views | 312 | 7 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 191 | 22 | 0 |