Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt’s intellectual legacy includes a collection of poems that have not received much attention from scholars. Arendt began writing these poems in her youth and continued into adulthood. Her American period of poetry reflects on the experience of emigration and the loss of loved ones. The c...

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Main Authors: Oxana A. Koval, Ekaterina B. Kriukova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 2024-12-01
Series:Studia Litterarum
Subjects:
Online Access:https://studlit.ru/images/2024-9-4/07_Koval_Kriukova.pdf
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author Oxana A. Koval
Ekaterina B. Kriukova
author_facet Oxana A. Koval
Ekaterina B. Kriukova
author_sort Oxana A. Koval
collection DOAJ
description Hannah Arendt’s intellectual legacy includes a collection of poems that have not received much attention from scholars. Arendt began writing these poems in her youth and continued into adulthood. Her American period of poetry reflects on the experience of emigration and the loss of loved ones. The collection begins with a poem dedicated to the death of her friend, the philosopher Walter Benjamin. The lyrical necrology, entitled with the initials “W.B.” and dated 1942, is both a tribute to the dead thinker and a reaction to the first reports of German death camps. This article reconstructs the origins of the poem and provides a detailed analysis of it. The interpretation is based on clarifying the philosophical subtext of this work, which deals with themes important to Arendt and Benjamin. For this purpose, the article uses such Arendt’s writings as the essay “We Refugees” (1943), the lecture “Walter Benjamin” (1968), and the book “The Life of the Mind” (1978). The example of the poem demonstrates the continuity and consonance of Arendt’s ideas with Benjaminian concepts of aura (“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”), Jetztzeit (“On the Concept of History”), and remembrance (“Berlin Childhood Around 1900”).
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spelling doaj-art-0fcb2bd552d2434d8453f68d2a7fbc2e2025-08-20T03:17:27ZengRussian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World LiteratureStudia Litterarum2500-42472541-85642024-12-019412213710.22455/2500-4247-2024-9-4-122-137Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah ArendtOxana A. Koval0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4718-6669Ekaterina B. Kriukova1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6585-4611Russian Christian Academy for Humanities named after Fyodor Dostoevsky, St. Petersburg, RussiaChristian Academy for Humanities named after Fyodor Dostoevsky, St. Petersburg, RussiaHannah Arendt’s intellectual legacy includes a collection of poems that have not received much attention from scholars. Arendt began writing these poems in her youth and continued into adulthood. Her American period of poetry reflects on the experience of emigration and the loss of loved ones. The collection begins with a poem dedicated to the death of her friend, the philosopher Walter Benjamin. The lyrical necrology, entitled with the initials “W.B.” and dated 1942, is both a tribute to the dead thinker and a reaction to the first reports of German death camps. This article reconstructs the origins of the poem and provides a detailed analysis of it. The interpretation is based on clarifying the philosophical subtext of this work, which deals with themes important to Arendt and Benjamin. For this purpose, the article uses such Arendt’s writings as the essay “We Refugees” (1943), the lecture “Walter Benjamin” (1968), and the book “The Life of the Mind” (1978). The example of the poem demonstrates the continuity and consonance of Arendt’s ideas with Benjaminian concepts of aura (“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”), Jetztzeit (“On the Concept of History”), and remembrance (“Berlin Childhood Around 1900”).https://studlit.ru/images/2024-9-4/07_Koval_Kriukova.pdfhannah arendtwalter benjaminpoetry and philosophymemorythinkingdeathtimelanguage
spellingShingle Oxana A. Koval
Ekaterina B. Kriukova
Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt
Studia Litterarum
hannah arendt
walter benjamin
poetry and philosophy
memory
thinking
death
time
language
title Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt
title_full Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt
title_fullStr Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt
title_full_unstemmed Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt
title_short Philosophical Poetry as a Form of Memory. On a Poem by Hannah Arendt
title_sort philosophical poetry as a form of memory on a poem by hannah arendt
topic hannah arendt
walter benjamin
poetry and philosophy
memory
thinking
death
time
language
url https://studlit.ru/images/2024-9-4/07_Koval_Kriukova.pdf
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