Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-7-2018 3:00 PM Bastard Reasoning: A "Preposterous" History of Walter Benjamin's Ideas Vladimir Cristache The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Mooney, Kevin The University of Western Ontario Co-Supervisor Calcagno, Antonio The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Vladimir Cristache 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, Other German Language and Literature Commons, Philosophy of Language Commons, and the Reading and Language Commons Recommended Citation Cristache, Vladimir, "Bastard Reasoning: A "Preposterous" History of Walter Benjamin's Ideas" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5923. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5923 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract This dissertation presents the theory of ideas developed by Walter Benjamin in the “Epistemo-Critical Prologue” of his Trauerspiel book and thereby seeks to fill an existing gap in English-language Benjamin literature. On the one hand, it performs its task by closely reading this thinker’s early, epistemo-linguistic writings up to and including the “Prologue”: most prominently, “On Language as Such,” “The Program of the Coming Philosophy,” “The Concept of Criticism,” and the theoretically inclined sections of “Goethe’s Elective Affinities.” On the other, it does so by positioning Benjamin’s theory of language within existentialist philosophy and by applying his theory of ideas to post-war literary theory.