The Inverted Wish : Towards Walter Benjamin’s Notion of Time
(2022) God, Time and Change: 23rd Biennial Conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion- Abstract
- Walter Benjamin’s complex notion of time, permeating much of his historical, political, and cultural-critical thought, has been the subject of considerable discussion. In particular, the interaction between the two opposing categories of historical time and messianic time poses a great difficulty: how do messianic moments of cessation act within the homogeneous continuum of history? To propose one model of such interaction, I turn to an often overlooked narrative found in Benjamin’s major essay on Kafka: a tale whose focal point is a beggar’s wish to reshape his past. The inverted wish narrative provides a key for reading messianic cessation as a transformative force directed towards the past, capable of subverting the oppressive, mythical... (More)
- Walter Benjamin’s complex notion of time, permeating much of his historical, political, and cultural-critical thought, has been the subject of considerable discussion. In particular, the interaction between the two opposing categories of historical time and messianic time poses a great difficulty: how do messianic moments of cessation act within the homogeneous continuum of history? To propose one model of such interaction, I turn to an often overlooked narrative found in Benjamin’s major essay on Kafka: a tale whose focal point is a beggar’s wish to reshape his past. The inverted wish narrative provides a key for reading messianic cessation as a transformative force directed towards the past, capable of subverting the oppressive, mythical forces of history.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/20c0d48e-cfdc-4c00-b869-e759a52361a8
- author
- Seri, Laila LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- unpublished
- subject
- conference name
- God, Time and Change: 23rd Biennial Conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion
- conference location
- Oxford, United Kingdom
- conference dates
- 2022-09-03 - 2022-09-06
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 20c0d48e-cfdc-4c00-b869-e759a52361a8
- date added to LUP
- 2024-01-29 14:35:23
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 13:51:43
@misc{20c0d48e-cfdc-4c00-b869-e759a52361a8,
abstract = {{Walter Benjamin’s complex notion of time, permeating much of his historical, political, and cultural-critical thought, has been the subject of considerable discussion. In particular, the interaction between the two opposing categories of historical time and messianic time poses a great difficulty: how do messianic moments of cessation act within the homogeneous continuum of history? To propose one model of such interaction, I turn to an often overlooked narrative found in Benjamin’s major essay on Kafka: a tale whose focal point is a beggar’s wish to reshape his past. The inverted wish narrative provides a key for reading messianic cessation as a transformative force directed towards the past, capable of subverting the oppressive, mythical forces of history.<br/><br/>}},
author = {{Seri, Laila}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{The Inverted Wish : Towards Walter Benjamin’s Notion of Time}},
year = {{2022}},
}