The Politics of Imagination – Benjamin, Kracauer, Kluge

Tara Forrest author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Transcript Verlag

Published:8th Dec '21

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Politics of Imagination – Benjamin, Kracauer, Kluge cover

This book explores Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer and Alexander Kluge's analyses of the role that a rejuvenation in the capacity for imagination can play in encouraging us to reconceive the possibilities of the past, the present, and the future outside of the parameters of the status quo. The concept of imagination to which the title of the book refers is not a strictly defined, stable concept, but rather a term which is employed to refer to a capacity that facilitates both an active, creative relationship to one's environment, and a process of mediation between the outside world and one's own experiences and memories.

Through a detailed analysis of their engagements with subjects that span a broad range of historical and thematic contexts (including topics as diverse as literature, children's play, film, photography, history, and television) the book charts the extent to which the concept of imagination plays a central role in Benjamin, Kracauer, and Kluge's explorations of a mode of perception and experience which could serve as a catalyst for the creation and sustenance of a desire for a different kind of future.

Reviewed in:

cultural studies review, 14/2, 9 (2008), Lisa McDonald

fsk Hamburg, 09.08.2009, Olaf Berg


»Während die Verbindung von Benjamin und Kluge geläufig ist, so wird Kracauers spätes Werk zur Film- und Geschichtstheorie recht selten überhaupt wahrgenommen. Ihn mit Kluge und Benjamin zu verbinden, ist Forrest in ihrer Arbeit überzeugend gelungen.«

* Olaf Berg, fsk Hamburg, 09.08.2009 *

»Beyond its immediate appeal to those interested in film and cultural theory will [this book] contribute well to the increasing interest in emergent studies, the interactions between literature, art, science and science philosophy.«

* Lisa McDonald, cultural studies review, 14/2, 9 (2008) *

»Beyond its immediate appeal to those interested in film and cultural theory will [this book] contribute well to the increasing interest in emergent studies, the interactions between literature, art, science and science philosophy.«

* Lisa McDonald, cultural studies review, 14/2, 9 (2008) *

Reviewed in:

cultural studies review, 14/2, 9 (2008), Lisa McDonald

ISBN: 9783899426816

Dimensions: 8mm x 5mm x 15mm

Weight: 625g

198 pages