Preface
Translator’s Note
Benjamin’s Works Cited in This Study

Chapter One: Introduction
1. A Contemporary of Modernity
2. Life and Works
3. Companions, Influences

Chapter Two: Early Writings, 1914–18
1. Apotheosis of the Mind (Geist): Beginnings inside the Youth Movement
“Dialogue on Contemporary Religiosity” (1912); “The Life of Students” (1915–16)
2. Life of the Work of Art
“Two Poems by Friedrich Hölderlin” (1914–15); “The Idiot by Dostoevsky” (1917–21)
3. Defining His Philosophical Position
“On the Program of the Coming Philosophy” (1917–18)
4. The Magic of Language
Letter to Buber of July 17, 1916; “On Language as Such and on the Language of Man” (1916); “The Task of the Translator” (1921)

Chapter Three: Art Criticism and Politics, 1919–25
1. Romantic Philosophy of Art and Its Contemporary Relevance
The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism (1919–20)
2. Exemplary Criticism: “Goethe’s Elective Affinities”
“Announcement of the Journal Angelus Novus” (1912);
“Goethe’s Elective Affinities” (1921–25)
3. The Problematic of Art: Criticism and Allegorical Artwork
Origin of German Tragic Drama (1923–28)
4. Paul Scheerbart and the Concept of the Political
“Theological-political Fragment” (1920–21); “The True
Politician” (1921–25); “Critique of Violence” (1921); “Paul Scheerbart: Lesabéndio” (1917–19)
 
Chapter Four: Journalistic Commitment and Essayistic Work, 1925–33
1. Profane Illumination: Surrealism and Politics
One-Way Street (1923–28); “Moscow” (1927); “Surrealism:
The Last Snapshot of the German Intelligentsia” (1929)
2. The “Strategist in the Literary Struggle”
Reviews of Literary Scholarship (1926–31): Gundolf, Walzel,
Kommerell, Ermatinger; “Politicizing the Intelligentsia”
(1930–32): Reviews of Haas, Kästner, Hiller, Kracauer, Jünger
3. The Task of the Critic
“Collected Essays on Literature” (1929–30); “Journal Project:
Krisis und Kritik” (1930); “Johann Peter Hebel” (1926); “Gottfried Keller” (1927); “Robert Walser” (1929); “Julien Green” (1929); “On the Image of Proust” (1929); “Karl Kraus” (1931); “Paul Valéry” (1931); “Bert Brecht” (1930); “What Is the Epic Theater?” (1931–39)
 
Chapter Five: Exile Writings, 1933–39
1. The Changing Function of Art
“The Present Social Situation of the French Writer” (1933–34);
“The Author as Producer” (1934); “Eduard Fuchs, Collector and
Historian” (1937); “‘The Regression of Poetry’ by C. G. Jochmann” (1939)
2. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility
“Little History of Photography” (1931); “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” (1935–36)
3. Reinstatement of Epic Narration 126
“Experience and Poverty” (1933); “The Crisis of the Novel:
Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz” (1930); “The Storyteller:
Observations on the Works of Nikolai Leskov” (1936); “Franz
Kafka: Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer” (1931); “Franz
Kafka. On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death” (1934)

Chapter Six: Primal History of Modernism, 1931–40
1. Berlin Childhood around 1900
“Berlin Chronicle” (1932); “Berlin Childhood around 1900”
(1932–38); “Doctrine of the Similar/On the Mimetic Faculty” (1933)
2. Parisian Arcades
The Arcades Project (1927–1940); “Paris, the Capital of the
Nineteenth Century” (1935); “Paris, capitale du XIXème siècle” (1939)
3. Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism
“The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire” (1938);
“On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” (1939); “Central Park” (1939)
4. The Concept of History
“On the Concept of History” (1940); “Arcades Project: Files J and N”
 
Chapter Seven: Posthumous Influence and Stages of Reception
1. Record of Extant Material and Editions
2. Reception

Chronology
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index of Names