Table of Contents

Part 1 Metaphysics of youth, 1913-1919: "experience"; the metaphysics of youth; two poems by Friedrich Holderlin; the life of students; aphorisms on imagination and colour; a child's view of colour; Socrates; "trauerspiel" and tragedy; the role of language in "trauerspiel" and tragedy; on language as such and on the language of man; theses on the problem of identity; Dostoevsky's "The Idiot"; painting and the graphic arts; painting, or signs and marks; the ground of intentional immediacy; the object - triangle; perception is reading; on perception; comments on Gundolf's "Goethe"; on the programme of the coming philosophy; Stifter; every unlimited condition of the will; types of history; the concept of criticism in German Romanticism; fate and character; analogy and relationship; the paradox of the Cretan; the currently effective Messianic elements. Part 2 Angelus Novus, 1920-1926: the theory of criticism; categories of aesthetics; on semblance; world and time; according to the theory of Duns Scotus; on love and related matters; the right to use force; the medium through which works of art continue to influence later ages; critique of violence; the task of the translator; notes for a study of the beauty of coloured illustrations in children's books; riddle and mystery; outline for a "habilitation" thesis; language and logic (I-III); theory of knowledge; truth and truths/knowledge and elements of knowledge; imagination; beauty and semblance; the philosophy of history of the late Romantics and the historical school; the meaning of time in the moral universe; capitalism as religion; announcement of the journal "Angelus Novus"; Goethe's elective affinities; Baudelaire (II,III); Calderon's "El Mayor Monstruo, Los Celos" and Hebbel's "Herodes und Mariamne"; letter to Florens Christian Rang; stages of intention; outline of the psychophysical problem; even the sacramental migrates into myth; on the topic of individual disciplines and philosophy; "old forgotten children's books"; Naples; curriculum vitae (I); reflections on Humboldt; review of Bernoulli's "Bachofen"; Johann Peter Hebel (I) - on the centenary of his death; Johann Peter Hebel (II) - a picture puzzle for the centenary of his death; a glimpse into the world of children's books; one-way street.

Reviews

"To encounter Benjamin's piece ["The Life of a Students"] is like overhearing the opening notes of one of the most intellectually compelling friendships of our century. It is greatly to the credit of Harvard University Press to have made the text finally available to English-speaking readers. In general, the editors of this volume have made an exemplary choice of what to include, and when their projected multi-volume section is complete, it will constitute the most important compilation of Benjamin's writings outside the mammoth German Collected Works." - Michael Andre Bernstein, New Republic"