Aktualität | Actuality in Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy

Aktualität | Actuality in Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy

Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

September 26-27, 2014

Comparative Literature Department Workshop

Theme & Call for Paper

"Damit ein Stück Vergangenheit von der Aktualität betroffen werde, darf keine Kontinuität zwischen ihnen bestehen." Passagen-Werk, N 7, 7 Benjamin’s concept of Aktualität belongs to the most basic and, at the same time, most intricate parts of his thinking. Radicalizing the ambiguity of the German word, Aktualität as actuality and contemporaneity, for Benjamin it denotes both modal actuality and temporal transience. Aktualität is thus not reducible to the current or topical since he conceives of “wahre Aktualität” (GS II, 244) also in terms of modal degrees of actuality. These modal degrees of actuality exceed our common perception of (linear) time, since they bundle heterogeneous time modes of the past and the present in singular moments. Hence, the concept of Aktualität designates a temporal densification, in which different layers of past and presence instantaneously meet to form a denser or “higher” degree of reality.

This international workshop takes its cue from the (un)translatability of the German word Aktualität and proposes a shift of perspective from Benjamin’s contemporaneity, which has been widely discussed already, to the non-contemporaneity of his concept. Therefore, we will concentrate on and analyze how the concept of actuality is to be understood within the overall realm of Benjamin’s philosophy. We are especially interested in its relation to other Benjaminian key figures (e.g. origin, idea, trace, dialectical image), its entanglement with the philosophical tradition (Aristotle, Plato, Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida et al.), and its implications for the socio-historical realm. Departing from the assertion that the concept of Aktualität transfigures our notion of time and contemporaneity, we propose to discuss the following questions:

- On which philosophical grounds Benjamin redefines this concept and, in turn, how does this redefinition affect our concepts of history of ideas and the idea of history?

- Furthermore, in what way does the concept of Aktualität |Actuality change our perception and knowledge of the world?

- Can Benjamin’s reading of actuality lead to a critical inquiry of our present epistemological and socio-historic conditions, which are still prefigured by a linear and historicist concept of time?

- How does the temporal and modal actuality of global capitalism affect the ways in which we conceive of our actual presence and the potentialities of the now?

The workshop brings together internationally renowned scholars who have extensively worked on these fields, such as IRVING WOHLFARTH (Paris/Bremen) and ANDREW BENJAMIN (London/Melbourne). We invite discussants on all levels of their academic career as well as from non-academic contexts for short interventions and speakers with full papers (max. 25 minutes). If you wish to participate, please send a short message indicating your preferred mode of participation (discussant or speaker), an abstract of your proposed paper (max. 250 words, necessary only if you prefer to participate as speaker), and a brief biographical information. Please send your email to [email protected] before AUGUST 4, 2014.

Organization: Achim Geisenhanslüke (Frankfurt), Sami Khatib (Berlin), Stefano Marchesoni (Trento), Nassima Sahraoui (Frankfurt) Website & updates: