RT Article
T1 On the Brinks of Language: Benjamin’s Approach to a Tragic Dialogue
JF Religions
VO 15
IS 1
A1 Hansen, Bjarke Mørkøre Stigel
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1877475025
AB The aim of this article is to explore the potential tension that according to Walter Benjamin is at stake in the opposition between the bourgeois conception of language and an inquiry into the essence of language, taking into account important texts written in 1916, in order to shed light on language that moves in the direction of a dialogical situation premised on a tragic approach. More specifically, beginning with an outline of Benjamin’s notion of the relationship between language and action, with particular attention to his 1916 letter to Martin Buber and the role of language, it then goes on to discuss the structure of language in the 1916 essay on language, at the end of which Benjamin asserts that there is a “tragic relationship between the languages of human speakers”. Drawing on a posthumously published essay from 1916, entitled The Role of Language in Tragedy and Trauerspiel, it finally seeks to show how this tragic relationship is essential to a dialogical situation.
K1 tragic
K1 Communication
K1 Silence
K1 Language
K1 Benjamin
DO 10.3390/rel15010076