A Weak Messianic Power: Figures Of A Time To Come In Benjamin, Derrida, And Celan
by Michael G. Levine /
2013 / English / PDF
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In his famous theses on the philosophy of history, Benjamin writes:
"We have been endowed with a weak messianic power to which the past
has a claim." This claim addresses us not just from the past but
from what will have belonged to it only as a missed possibility and
unrealized potential. For Benajmin, as for Celan and Derrida, what
has never been actualized remains with us, not as a lingering echo
but as a secretly insistent appeal. Because such appeals do not
pass through normal channels of communication, they require a
special attunement, perhaps even a mode of unconscious receptivity.
Levine examines the ways in which this attunement is cultivated in
Benjamin's philosophical, autobiographical, and photohistorical
writings; Celan's poetry and poetological addresses; and Derrida's
writings on Celan.
In his famous theses on the philosophy of history, Benjamin writes:
"We have been endowed with a weak messianic power to which the past
has a claim." This claim addresses us not just from the past but
from what will have belonged to it only as a missed possibility and
unrealized potential. For Benajmin, as for Celan and Derrida, what
has never been actualized remains with us, not as a lingering echo
but as a secretly insistent appeal. Because such appeals do not
pass through normal channels of communication, they require a
special attunement, perhaps even a mode of unconscious receptivity.
Levine examines the ways in which this attunement is cultivated in
Benjamin's philosophical, autobiographical, and photohistorical
writings; Celan's poetry and poetological addresses; and Derrida's
writings on Celan.
