This paper analyzes the main themes of Walter Benjamin’s critical approach with respect to the concept of Einfühlung-Empathy. He starts from its emotional ground in acedia, which he deals with in his Origin of Mourning Play in 1925. He then handles it while reading Brecht’s epic theatre, and then critically addresses the concept in his last work, On the Concept of History. His analysis of how empathy works has some analogies with previous German investigations of the concept (Max Weber, Willy Hellpach), on one side, but it will also influence the observations on atrocity photographs by Susan Sontag.

La critica dell’empatia in Walter Benjamin. Acedia, merce, dominio

Massimo Palma
Writing – Review & Editing
2019-01-01

Abstract

This paper analyzes the main themes of Walter Benjamin’s critical approach with respect to the concept of Einfühlung-Empathy. He starts from its emotional ground in acedia, which he deals with in his Origin of Mourning Play in 1925. He then handles it while reading Brecht’s epic theatre, and then critically addresses the concept in his last work, On the Concept of History. His analysis of how empathy works has some analogies with previous German investigations of the concept (Max Weber, Willy Hellpach), on one side, but it will also influence the observations on atrocity photographs by Susan Sontag.
2019
Empathy, Goods, Commodities, Domination
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12570/13869
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