benjamin_index

Rajeev S. Patke

RESEARCH PROJECT

The following research papers explore the application of ideas from the work of Walter Benjamin to the study of other (chiefly Asian) literatures and cultures.

The aim of the project is two-fold:

To show how approaches specific to a European perspective may have a wider (and relatively undeveloped) relevance to contemporary situations

To also show how the interaction between European ideas and non-European materials can bring about a revaluation of those ideas just as much as those ideas can affect our understanding of those materials.

Review Article on 'Benjamin and History' for special online journal issue, entitled Reproducing Art: Walter Benjamin's Work of Art Essay Reconsidered, to be published by Florida State University's InterCulture (http://www.fsu.edu/~proghum/interculture/homepage.html).

“Benjamin on Art and Reproducibility: The Case of Music”, in Walter Benjamin and Art, ed. Andrew Benjamin (London & New York: Continuum Books, 2005), 185-208, 279.

“Through the Floors of Perception: Huxley, Benjamin, and Drugs”, Journal X: A Biannual Journal in Culture and Criticism 3.1 (Spring 2003)(University of Mississippi): 155-168.

“Benjamin and Bakhtin: The Possibility of Conversation”, Journal of Narrative Theory: Special Issue on “Intersections of Benjamin and Bakhtin.” 33.1 (Winter 2003): 12-32.

“Benjamin’s Arcades Project and the Postcolonial City”, Diacritics 30: 4 (Winter 2000, published July 2002): 3-14.

[Revised and augmented version of “Benjamin’s perpetuum mobile: The Arcades Project,” in Perpetuating Cities: Postcolonial Urbanism, eds. Ryan Bishop, John W. Phillips and Yeo Wei Wei. New York: Routledge, 2003, 287-302.]

Book Review: “Almost nothing has made everything well again”? , Review of Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin: The Complete Correspondence 1928-1940, edited by Henri Lonitz, translated by Nicholas Walker. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999), in The European Legacy (2003).

[Paper presented at Conference on ‘City as Text’, 8-10 September 1999, Department of English Language and Literature, & Centre for Advanced Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore]

[The above is a revised and augmented version (with photographs) of “Benjamin in Bombay: An Asian Extrapolation,” forthcoming in Theorising the Southeast Asian City as text: Urban Landscapes, Cultural Documents, and Interpretative Experiences, eds. Robbie B.H. Goh and Brenda S.A. Yeoh. Singapore: World Scientific/Singapore University Press (2003), 191-203.)

"Benjamin's Aura, Stevens's Description without Place," Benjamin's Blindspot: Walter Benjamin & the Premature Death of Aura, ed. Lise Patt. Topanga, CA: Institute of Cultural Inquiry, 2001, 81-98.

A shorter and earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual EACLALS Conference on ‘Colonies, Missions, Cultures’, 6-9 April 1999, University of Tübingen, Germany.

This revised version was presented at a Seminar organized by the Centre for Advanced Studies, National University of Singapore, 2 October, 1999.

"Irretrievable Fragments: Postcolonial Projects in Indian Historiography," Colonies-Missions-Cultures in the English-Speaking World, ed. Gerhard Stilz. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 2001, 348-60.

[Review article on Walter Benjamin’s Other History by Beatrice Hanssen. In The European Legacy: Towards New Paradigms (Journal of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas), 4: 4 (1999): 93-97.]

[Published in Interlogue: Essays on Singapore Literature in English, Vol. 1. Fiction, edited by Kirpal Singh, pp. 117-143. Singapore: Ethos Publications, 1998.]

[Paper presented at Workshop on ‘Literature as Revolt in Twentieth Century Europe’, 17 August 1998, The University of Haifa, Israel (6^th ISSEI Conference)]

[Paper presented at Workshop on ‘Role of Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century’, 18 August 1998, The University of Haifa, Israel. (6^th ISSEI Conference)]

[Paper presented at Workshop on ‘Literature as Revolt in Twentieth Century Europe’, 18 August 1998, The University of Haifa, Israel (6^th ISSEI Conference)]

[Paper presented at First Walter Benjamin Association World Conference, 24-26 July 1997, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands ]

CD-ROM: Twentieth Century European Narratives: Tradition & Innovation. Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Haifa University, Israel, August 16-21, 1998, eds. Sascha Talmor, Rachel Ben-David ( ISBN 965-555-067-2), May 2001.