Myth and Metropolis

aeo A timely and highly accessible study of Walter Benjamin, one of the most original and perceptive thinkers of the twentieth century. aeo The author sheds new light on Benjamina s lifelong fascination with the city by examining a number of key texts, including those of Naples, Marseilles, Moscow, Paris and Berlin. Walter Benjamin is now widely recognized as one of the most original and perceptive thinkers of the twentieth century. This book, now available in paperback is a timely and lucid study of Benjamin's lifelong fascination with the city and forms of metropolitan experience. Benjamin's critical and complex account of the modern urban environment is traced through a number of key texts: the pioneering sketches of Naples, Marseilles and Moscow; his childhood reminiscences of Berlin; and his brilliant and unfinished studies of nineteenth-century Paris and the poet Charles Baudelaire. Gilloch emphasizes the importance of these writings for an interpretation of Benjamin's work as a whole, and highlights their relevance for our contemporary understanding of modernity. Essential reading for anyone concerned with Benjamin's work, Myth and Metropolis will also be of interest to scholars and students in social theory, cultural analysis and urban studies. This is a lucid study of Walter Benjamin's lifelong fascination with the city and forms of metropolitan experience, highlighting the relevance of Benjamin's work to our contemporary understanding of modernity.