Workshop on Walter Benjamin’s “theory of fascism”

The aim of this workshop is to schematize what we might call Walter Benjamin’s “theory of fascism.” The name “Walter Benjamin” may not necessarily call to mind an explicit theorization of fascism. While Benjamin is well-loved for his aesthetic theory, his critique of historical and technical “progress,” and his theorization of juridical violence, none of these necessarily indicate a unifying or even detailed theory of fascism such as we find in the work of his contemporaries, such as Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer. A major presupposition of this workshop is that, through critical examination of what Benjamin has to say about fascism through his work, we might discover an opportunity to reorient extant understandings of Benjamin by identifying in and developing out of his work a coherent theory of fascism. The format of a group workshop serves as a vehicle through which Benjamin scholars can come together to assess how Benjamin has theorized and thematized fascism across his work, from the mysticism of the early Benjamin to the later, notably more Marxist Benjamin.

The workshop will be held as a hybrid and dual event, organized at Emory University, USA and KU Leuven, Belgium, each focusing on specific subdomains of the discussion, with a broader discussion at the end. The workshop will focus on pre-selected papers and close reading sessions of key texts over three days. Acceptance into the workshop will be based on short writeups or paper drafts submitted by potential workshop participants. We recommend that these writeups and drafts connect to the proposed themes and questions of the workshop such that our discussions, analyses, and development of these topics contributes to the refinement and/or development of your own research questions and interests. These themes/topics may include but are not necessarily limited to the relationship between liberalism, capitalism, and fascism; the importance history, experience, or consciousness when approaching the problem of fascism; fascist and/or “Right wing” culture, the culture of Leftism, or Benjamin’s critique of Leftists and Marxists (such as the German SPD). Ideally, workshop participants will come away from the workshop with a more developed research focus, or a more refined draft of a research paper. A full schedule of readings and group discussion, as well as a more detailed presentation of the workshop’s guiding themes and questions, will be made available to participants upon their acceptance.