Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin: Eros of friendship and elective affinities in dark times

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202035030007

Keywords:

Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, exile, Eros of Friendship, Elective Affinities

Abstract

When we talk about the relationship between Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) the friendship is always remembered. The philosopher Hans Jonas - Arendt's friend since they were classmates at the University in Marburg and Heidegger’s students ”“ in the tributes paid on the occasion of her death, highlighted her vocation for friendship. According to him, what moved her was the Eros of friendship (Eros der Freundschaft).  Among her closest friends, there was Walter Benjamin, with whom she was familiar during the exile in Paris, in the years from 1936 to 1940. What I would like to show is that friendship as conceived and grown in practice by the two thinkers would be in the center of their life as a moral trace. This paper aims  to broaden the relationship between Arendt and Benjamin in two areas: friendship, built in the situation of Jewish-German refugees philosophers in Paris, and the elective affinities to the concept of History and to the vision of modernity. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Maria Francisca Pinheiro Coelho, Universidade de Brasília (UnB)

Professora Titular do Departamento do Sociologia, Universidade de Brasília, DF, Brasil. Bolsista Capes/Professora Visitante no Exterior Sênior, na instituição Freie Universität Berlin, Alemanha, período 8/2018 a 7/2019/Processo 88881.171378/2018-01.

References

ADLER, Laure. Nos passos de Hannah Arendt. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2007. [ Links ]

ADORNO, Theodor W. Correspondência 1928-1940. In: Adorno-Benjamin. São Paulo: Editora Unesp, 2012. [ Links ]

ARENDT, Hannah. Crises da República. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1999. [ Links ]

______. A tradição e a época moderna. In: ______. Entre o passado e o futuro. 2 ed. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1988a. [ Links ]

______. O Conceito de história - antigo e moderno. In: ______. Entre o passado e o futuro. 2. ed. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1988b. [ Links ]

______. Walter Benjamin: 1892-1940. In: _____. Homens em tempos sombrios. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1987. [ Links ]

______. Men in dark times. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1983. [ Links ]

______. Hannah Arendt on Hannah Arendt. In: HILL, Melvyn A. (Edited). Hannah Arendt: the recovery of the public world. New York: St. Martins’s Press, 1979. [ Links ]

______. Rahel Varnhagen, the life of a jewish woman. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. [ Links ]

ARISTÓTELES. Ética a Nicômacos. Brasília: Editora Universidade de Brasília, 1992. [ Links ]

BENJAMIN, Walter. Über den Begriff der Geschichte. Suhrkamp verlag Berlin, Band 19, 2010. [ Links ]

______. As afinidades eletivas em Goethe. In: ______. Ensaios reunidos: escritos sobre Goethe. São Paulo: Duas cidades; Editora 34, 2009. [ Links ]

______. Illuminations. Edited by Hannah Arendt. New York. Harcourt Brace Jowanovich, Inc. 2007. [ Links ]

______. Briefe. Herausgegeben und mit Anmerkungen Verseihen von Gershom Scholem und Theodor W. Adorno. Erster Band. Suhrkamp. Band1 und Band2, 1993. [ Links ]

______. O narrador. Considerações sobre a obra de Nikolai Leskov. In: ______. Obras escolhidas. v. 1. 3. ed. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1987a. [ Links ]

______. Sobre o conceito de história. In: ______. Obras escolhidas. v. 1. 3. ed. São Paulo: Brasiliense, 1987b. [ Links ]

BENJAMIN, Walter; SCHOLEM, Gershom. Correspondência. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1993. [ Links ]

CÃCERO, Marco Túlio. Sobre a amizade. São Paulo: Editora Nova Alexandria, 2006. [ Links ]

GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. As afinidades eletivas. São Paulo: Penguin Classics; Companhia das Letras, 2014. [ Links ]

LÖWY, Michel. Redenção e utopia: o judaísmo libertário na Europa Central: um estudo de afinidade eletiva. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1989. [ Links ]

SCHOLEM, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: A história de uma amizade. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1989. [ Links ]

SCHÖTTKER, Detlev; WIZISLA, Erdmut. Arendt und Benjamin. Deutschland: Suhrkamp, 2006. [ Links ]

YOUNG-BRUEHL, Elisabeth. Hannah Arend, for love of the world. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1982. [ Links ]

YOUNG-BRUEHL, Elisabeth. Por amor ao mundo: a vida e a obra de Hannah Arendt. Rio de Janeiro: Relume Dumará, 1997. [ Links ]

Published

2020-11-27

How to Cite

Pinheiro Coelho, M. F. . (2020). Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin: Eros of friendship and elective affinities in dark times. Sociedade E Estado, 35(03), 817–836. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202035030007