Walter Benjamin’s Baudelaire is a difficult work. Not only is Baudelaire hard to understand, but Benjamin assumes knowledge of key figures of the nineteenth century like Hoffman, Saint-Simon and Balzac. Let alone that as a member of the Frankfurt school he cites Marx and Engels as authorities.
That said, it is an insightful look at Baudelaire vis-a-vis the Paris of Napoleon III. While Walter Benjamin’s Baudelaire is a difficult work. Not only is Baudelaire hard to understand, but Benjamin assumes knowledge of key figures of the nineteenth century like Hoffman, Saint-Simon and Balzac. Let alone that as a member of the Frankfurt school he cites Marx and Engels as authorities.
That said, it is an insightful look at Baudelaire vis-a-vis the Paris of Napoleon III. While romantics like Hugo championed the march of democracy and progress, Baudelaire took a much darker view of the changes due to modernity. The anonymity of walking down a busy street enabled the development of the flaneur but it also begot the detective novel and the crime that it portrayed. The arcades enabled the shopper to buy goods from all over the world but only if they turned themselves into a commodity (Benjamin’s interpretation not mine). Baudelaire even compared his poetry to the new phenomena of those who picked through trash for a living.
It’s a startling picture of Paris as anything but the city of Light. But there are some negatives in Benjamin’s otherwise percipient study. His style is apodeictic. No arguments, no citing of other critics; simply pronouncements on Baudelaire and Paris that the reader is supposed to accept. The aforementioned citation of Marx and Engels is probably why this work is heading towards obscurity. They’re invoked as a theologian might cite the Bible.
But for those who want to better understand Baudelaire in his time—not biographically but the meaning of his work—Benjamin’s is a useful opuscula to have. Perhaps the strongest recommendation I can make is that I plan on rereading it since a first reading can only gather so much. In short, highly recommended. romantics like Hugo championed the march of democracy and progress, Baudelaire took a darker view of the changes due to modernity. The anonymity of walking down a busy street enabled the development of the flaneur but it also begot the detective novel and the crime that it portrayed. The arcades enabled the shopper to buy goods from all over the world but only if they turned themselves into a commodity (Benjamin’s interpretation not mine). Baudelaire even compared his poetry to the new phenomena of those who picked through trash for a living.
It’s a startling picture of Paris as anything but the City of Light. But there are some negatives in Benjamin’s otherwise percipient study. His style is apodeictic. No arguments, no citing of other critics…simply pronouncements on Baudelaire and Paris that the reader is supposed to accept. The aforementioned citation of Marx and Engels is probably why this work is heading towards obscurity. They’re invoked as a theologian might cite the Bible.
But for those who want to better understand Baudelaire in his time—not biographically but the meaning of his work—Benjamin’s is a useful opuscula to have. Perhaps the strongest recommendation I can make is that I plan on rereading it since a first reading can only gather so much.
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