Benjamin''s -abilities

There is no world of thought that is not a world of language, Walter Benjamin remarked, and one only sees in the world what is preconditioned by language. In this book, Samuel Weber, a leading theorist on literature and media, reveals a new and productive aspect of Benjamins thought by focusing on a little-discussed stylistic trait in his formulation of concepts.

Webers focus is the critical suffix -ability that Benjamin so tellingly deploys in his work. The -ability (-barkeit, in German) of concepts and literary forms traverses the whole of Benjamins oeuvre, from impartibility and criticizability through the well-known formulations of citability, translatability, and, most famously, the reproducibility of The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. Nouns formed with this suffix, Weber points out, refer to a possibility or potentiality, to a capacity rather than an existing reality. This insight allows for a consistent and enlightening reading of Benjamins writings.

Weber first situates Benjamins engagement with the -ability of various concepts in the context of his entire corpus and in relation to the philosophical tradition, from Kant to Derrida. Subsequent chapters deepen the implications of the use of this suffix in a wide variety of contexts, including Benjamins Trauerspiel book, his relation to Carl Schmitt, and a reading of Wagners Ring. The result is an illuminating perspective on Benjamins thought by way of his languageand one of the most penetrating and comprehensive accounts of Benjamins work ever written.