Fort. The Germangled Words of Edmund Husserl and Walter Benjamin
Abstract
Against the backdrop of the works of Jacques Derrida, the paper puts into dialogue Husserl’s late writings, particularly Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie and its “Beilage III” (“Der Ursprung der Geometrie”), with Walter Benjamin’s 1923 text “Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers.” The (twofold) goal of this comparative reading is to (a) suggest that Benjamin’s essay, far from merely “using” or “appropriating” phenomenological vocabulary (such as “Intention” or “Meinen”), anticipates a series of key developments within Husserl’s late oeuvre; and (b), vice versa, to formulate and defend the claim that Husserlian phenomenology, despite what might be the first impression, is deeply invested in the question of (literary) translation. Read side by side, the paper argues, Husserl’s interest in the (trans-historic) “Stiftung” of sense and Benjamin’s (messianic) reconceptualization of the relationship between an original and its translation(s) emerge as two sides of the same coin (if not two pieces of the same vessel); (non-)coincidence that, taking their respective “Wort-Leib” and the specific translational impossibilities inherent to it seriously, the “Beilage III” and “Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers” are, in retrospect from the very beginning, well aware of.
Abstract
Against the backdrop of the works of Jacques Derrida, the paper puts into dialogue Husserl’s late writings, particularly Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie and its “Beilage III” (“Der Ursprung der Geometrie”), with Walter Benjamin’s 1923 text “Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers.” The (twofold) goal of this comparative reading is to (a) suggest that Benjamin’s essay, far from merely “using” or “appropriating” phenomenological vocabulary (such as “Intention” or “Meinen”), anticipates a series of key developments within Husserl’s late oeuvre; and (b), vice versa, to formulate and defend the claim that Husserlian phenomenology, despite what might be the first impression, is deeply invested in the question of (literary) translation. Read side by side, the paper argues, Husserl’s interest in the (trans-historic) “Stiftung” of sense and Benjamin’s (messianic) reconceptualization of the relationship between an original and its translation(s) emerge as two sides of the same coin (if not two pieces of the same vessel); (non-)coincidence that, taking their respective “Wort-Leib” and the specific translational impossibilities inherent to it seriously, the “Beilage III” and “Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers” are, in retrospect from the very beginning, well aware of.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
I. Rhetoric and Thought: The Language of Phenomenology
- Husserl’s Image Worlds and the Language of Phenomenology 23
- Auch für Gott: Finitude, Phenomenology, and Anthropology 45
- “irgend etwas und irgend etwas”: Husserl’s Arithmetik and The Poetics of Epistemology 61
- Fort. The Germangled Words of Edmund Husserl and Walter Benjamin 85
-
II. Phenomenology and Incommensurability: Beyond Experience
- Beyond Experience: Blanchot’s Challenge to Husserl’s Phenomenology of Time 115
- Absehen – Disregarding Literature (Husserl / Hofmannsthal / Benjamin) 133
- Drawing a Blank – Passive Voices in Beckett, Husserl, and the Stoics 149
-
III. Phenomenology of the Image and the Text Corpus
- Charles Olson: Phenomenologist, Objectivist, Particularist 183
- Icon as Alter Ego? Husserl’s Fifth Cartesian Meditation and Icons of Mary in Chronicles of the Teutonic Order 201
- Absolute Gegebenheit: Image as Aesthetic Urphänomen in Husserl and Rilke 227
-
IV. Fictional Truths: Phenomenology and Narrative
- The Virtuous Philosopher and the Chameleon Poet: Husserl and Hofmannsthal 263
- “A Now Not toto caelo a Not-Now”: The “Origin” of Difference in Husserl, from Number to Literature 283
- Gregor Samsa and the Problem of Intersubjectivity 309
- Notes on Contributors 331
- Index 333
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
I. Rhetoric and Thought: The Language of Phenomenology
- Husserl’s Image Worlds and the Language of Phenomenology 23
- Auch für Gott: Finitude, Phenomenology, and Anthropology 45
- “irgend etwas und irgend etwas”: Husserl’s Arithmetik and The Poetics of Epistemology 61
- Fort. The Germangled Words of Edmund Husserl and Walter Benjamin 85
-
II. Phenomenology and Incommensurability: Beyond Experience
- Beyond Experience: Blanchot’s Challenge to Husserl’s Phenomenology of Time 115
- Absehen – Disregarding Literature (Husserl / Hofmannsthal / Benjamin) 133
- Drawing a Blank – Passive Voices in Beckett, Husserl, and the Stoics 149
-
III. Phenomenology of the Image and the Text Corpus
- Charles Olson: Phenomenologist, Objectivist, Particularist 183
- Icon as Alter Ego? Husserl’s Fifth Cartesian Meditation and Icons of Mary in Chronicles of the Teutonic Order 201
- Absolute Gegebenheit: Image as Aesthetic Urphänomen in Husserl and Rilke 227
-
IV. Fictional Truths: Phenomenology and Narrative
- The Virtuous Philosopher and the Chameleon Poet: Husserl and Hofmannsthal 263
- “A Now Not toto caelo a Not-Now”: The “Origin” of Difference in Husserl, from Number to Literature 283
- Gregor Samsa and the Problem of Intersubjectivity 309
- Notes on Contributors 331
- Index 333
