From Literature to Philosophy

Abstract

The article presents the possible paths to the philological development of the first translated and little-known work of Walter Benjamin The Role of Language in Trauerspiel and Tragedy. Based on the key problematics of the fragment, associated with the expressive possibilities of language, and by focusing on the features of the unusual philosophical speech, it is possible to consider the text as part of the tradition of poetic speaking in the spirit of Michel de Montaigne. The resonance of readers’ impressions of Benjamin, connecting the works of Shakespeare and Goethe with the legacy of expressionist poets, speaks to the philosopher’s unique understanding of the verbal side of his own reflections. A striking organic fusion of the factors “how is it said?” and “about what is said?” in Benjamin’s text is demonstrated by a selective analysis of individual phrases supported by appeals to the modern theory of poetry. Balancing on the borders of philosophy, literature, and philology, Benjamin aims to create the optimal conditions for language, traditionally striving to demonstrate the maximum extent of his capabilities in the artistic sphere. Such an orientation of the philosopher determines the fundamental similarity of his early fragment and the elements of the history of literature that are relevant today — from reflections of Friedrich Schlegel “On Incomprehensibility” and Heinrich von Kleist “On the Gradual Construction of Thoughts During Speech” to Joseph Brodsky’s famous formula “the poet is the means or instrument of language” and the broadest ideas about literary communication that form modern experimental creativity. As a result, it turns out that Benjamin’s legacy is a well-functioning prism that allows us to consider how the painful feeling of insufficient verbal resources and the acute need for diverse attempts, through poetic means, to study and expand the expressive possibilities of speech are manifested in art of the XX and early XXI centuries.