Walter Benjamin and Romanticism explores the relationship between Walter Benjamin's literary and philosophical work and the tradition of German Romanticism, as well as H÷lderlin and Goethe. Through a detailed and scholarly analysis of the major texts, the book explores the endurance of Benjamin's relationship to Romanticism, the residual presence of Romantic Goethean and H÷lderlinian motifs in Benjamin's subsequent writings and how Benjamin's understanding of the relationship between criticism and Romanticism can still play a vital role in contemporary philosophical and literary practice.Contributors: Andrew Benjamin, Josh Cohen, David Ferris, Beatrice Hanssen, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Charlie Louth, Bettine Menke, Winfried Menninghaus, Anthony Phelan, Sigrid Weigel

"Walter Benjamin's Critical Romanticism: Introduction" Beatrice Hanssen, University of Georgia, Athens and Andrew Benjamin, Monash UniversityPart I. Walter Benjamin and the Early RomanticsPhilippe Lacoue-Labarthe, University of Strasbourg, "Introduction to Walter Benjamin's The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism" Winfried Menninghaus, Free University, Berlin, "Walter Benjamin's Exposition of the Romantic Theory of Reflection"Rodolphe Gasché, SUNY, Buffalo, "The Sober Absolute: On Benjamin and the Early Romantics"Anthony Phelan, Keble College, Oxford, "Fortgang and Zusammenhang: Walter Benjamin and the Romantic Novel"Bettine Menke, University of Erfurt, "However One Calls Into the Forest: Echoes of Translation"Josh Cohen, Goldsmiths College, London, "Unfolding: Reading After Romanticism"Andrew Benjamin, Monash University, "The Absolute as Translatability: Working Through Walter Benjamin on Language"Fred Rush, University of Notre Dame, "Benjamin, Romanticism, and the Foundations of Critical Theory"Part II. Beyond Early Romanticism: Benjamin, Hölderlin, GoetheBeatrice Hanssen, University of Georgia, Athens, "'Dichtermut' and 'Blödigkeit'-Two Poems by Friedrich Hölderlin, Interpreted by Walter Benjamin"Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, University of Strasbourg, "Poetry's Courage"David Ferris, University of Colorado, Boulder, "Benjamin's Affinity: Goethe, the Romantics, and the Pure Problem of Criticism"Sigrid Weigel, Technical University, Berlin, "The Artwork as Breach of a Beyond: On the Dialectic of Divine and Human Order in Walter Benjamin's 'Goethe's Elective Affinities'"