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(Re)Thinking History -Benjamin’s Historical Materialism and Nietzsche’s Genealogy-

  • PHILOSOPHY·THOUGHT·CULTURE
  • 2021, (36), pp.181~201
  • DOI : 10.33639/ptc.2021..36.008
  • Publisher : Research Institute for East-West Thought
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : March 31, 2021
  • Accepted : June 30, 2021
  • Published : June 30, 2021

HWANG, Junghyun 1

1한성대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

By conducting a comparative close reading of Walter Benjamin’s “These on the Philosophy of History” and Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality, this paper proposes that the dialectical methodology of Benjamin’s historical materialism resonates with Nietzsche’s genealogical approach to history as a succession of interpretive regimes. Both Benjamin and Nietzsche see history as a contentious, contingent/discontinuous, and dynamic/dialectical process. Just as Benjamin sees history as the victor’s record treading down the victim’s story, Nietzsche’s genealogy traces the emergent process of a dominant system out of violent clashes between contending forces. Also, as Benjamin searches for a dialectical unity out of contentious historical elements, or a “constellation” of a present moment of danger with a particular past event, Nietzsche posits a genealogical unraveling of entangled interpretations as a “crystallization” into a unity. Most significantly, both thinkers share their ultimate concerns in rethinking history. As Nietzsche envisions a new ethics of life-affirming asceticism, Benjamin entreats for an ethical take on historiography as a redemptive practice for the oppressed.

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