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Heathwood Journal of Critical Theory – Issue 3: Reclaiming Walter Benjamin for Revolutionary Times

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Heathwood Journal of Critical Theory (Vol. 1, Issue 3)
Theme: Reclaiming Walter Benjamin for Revolutionary Times
Editors: R.C. Smith, Michael R. Ott
Authors: Michael R. Ott, R.C. Smith, María Castel, Dustin Byrd, Jeremy Arnott, Gustavo Racy, Ryan Moore, Johanna Tirnthal

Publication Date: June, 2016
Pages: 130
Format: Soft Cover
Price: £9.95
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Description

The Heathwood Journal of Critical Theory, produced for academics and non-academics alike, aims to support both the advancement of Critical Theory as well as the efforts of autonomous movements in struggle to develop a post-capitalist world. In this, the third issue of the Heathwood Journal, scholars engage with contemporary debates on the relevance of Walter Benjamin’s work in the 21st century. Discussion is far-reaching, ranging from Critical Theory of Religion to Philosophy of History and the ‘Death of Rock’.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Issue 3: Reclaiming Walter Benjamin for Revolutionary Times 1
Michael R. Ott, R.C. Smith

Introducing the Work of Walter Benjamin: Theology as a Key Methodological Component 5
María Castel

Rereading Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy of Religion in Post-Secular Society 12
Dustin Byrd

Gathering the Fragments of Truth, Reason, Hope and Redemption: Walter Benjamin’s Critical Theory of Religion 28
Michael R. Ott

On Some Motifs in Kafka (that they exist…): Reading Kafka with Benjamin (Scholem, Brecht) and Adorno 61
Jeremy Arnott

Walter Benjamin’s Capitalism as Religion: Is there any chance for freedom? 84
Gustavo Racy

Walter Benjamin and the ‘Death of Rock’: Aura, Authenticity, and Reproducibility 97
Ryan Moore

A Tiger’s Leap on Film: Reclaiming the Future Cinematically through Benjamin’s Theses on the Philosophy of History 109
Johanna Tirnthal

Michael R. Ott

Michael R. Ott

Michael R. Ott holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Western Michigan University [1998] and a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary [1975]. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where he specializes in and has written widely on the critical theory of society and religion of the famed “Frankfurt School.” He incorporates and continues to advance this critical theory and praxis, which seeks the socio-historical creation of a more reconciled future society, in the courses he teaches: Sociology/Critical Theory of Religion, Contemporary Sociological Theory, Globalization, Social Change, Senior Seminar in Sociology/Capstone, and Social Problems,. He has published a number of articles and book chapters on the critical theory of society and religion, as well as in two published books: Max Horkheimer’s Critical Theory of Religion: The Meaning of Religion in the Struggle for Human Emancipation [University Press of America 2001], and an edited volume entitled The Future of Religion: Toward a Reconciled Society [BRILL 2007]. A second edited volume entitled, The Dialectics of the Religious and the Secular: Studies on the Future of Religion is to be published by BRILL in August 2014. Michael is also a Co-Director of the international course The Future of Religion, held annually for the past 37 years at the Inter-University Centre of Post-Graduate Studies in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He is also an Editor and Fellow at Heathwood, helping guide and review research in relation to the Critical Theory of Religion research cluster. You can find more information about Michael here: http://www.criticaltheoryofreligion.org/ott.html & http://www.gvsu.edu/soc-dept/mike-ott-60.htm.
R.C. Smith

R.C. Smith

Founder / Editor
R.C. Smith is a researcher in Philosophy of Science. Currently a Teaching-Scholar at the Cooperative Institute of Transnational Studies, he is the founder of Heathwood Institute and Press where he also presently serves as Director / Executive Editor. Robert’s early research has been shaped largely by his interest in “extensively broad critical study”. Having spent most of his twenties researching in Frankfurt School critical theory and in what he describes as “engaged critical social philosophy”, his focus has been particularly honed on a cross-disciplinary and cross-field research programme spanning the many intersections of social sciences, humanities and history. Robert is the author of several books and over 100 academic articles.
R.C. Smith





Ryan Moore

Ryan Moore

Ryan Moore is assistant professor of sociology at CUNY-Queensborough Community College and the author of Sells like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture, and Social Crisis (NYU Press, 2010). His scholarly interests lie at the intersection of critical theory, popular music, and youth subcultures. His current research involves interviewing activists from Occupy Wall Street. He lives in New York City.
María Castel

María Castel

María Castel is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at University of Buenos Aires. She is an assistant professor of Aesthetic and Contemporary Philosophy at the same University. Her research project involves examining and establishing a relationship between the models of philosophical criticism of Ernst Bloch and Walter Benjamin, focusing on the realms of political and aesthetic theory.
Dustin Byrd

Dustin Byrd

Dustin J. Byrd is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Olivet College in Michigan, USA. He teaches religion, philosophy and Arabic. His academic work focuses on the Critical Theory of Religion, as it pertains to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and other forms of continental philosophy. He has published widely both on the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School as well as Islam, the Middle East and modern forms of political violence. With Seyed Javad Miri of Tehran, Iran, he has recently co-edited a book on Malcolm X, which will be published in June, 2016, with Brill Publishers. He lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with his family.
Gustavo Racy

Gustavo Racy

Gustavo Racy is Brazilian from São Paulo. Bachelor in Social Sciences and Philosophy, he is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. His present research revolves around the relation between capitalism and visual culture through a study of archive photographs of the cities of São Paulo and Antwerp aiming to explore the ways in which capitalism expresses itself visually. He has published several articles in Brazilian journals, most of them touching upon Walter Benjamin’s thinking.
Johanna Tirnthal

Johanna Tirnthal

I was born in Vienna, Austria. Currently, I am a MA student of Cultural Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin. I specialize in Marxism, Critical Theory and 20th century French philosophy, especially looking at media phenomena and popular culture. From 2010-2014 I did my BA in Film Studies and History at the Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin). In 2013 I spent one term at the ISCTE-IUL (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa) in Portugal where I did research on the filmic legacy of the Carnation Revolution. This article is a short version of my BA thesis and has already been published in German in the 1/2015 edition of the 360°-Journal. I also work as a radio editor and moderator for the academic podcast Kulturwelle at Humboldt University and for the Austrian public radio Ö1. This is what I mostly tweet about:
Jeremy Arnott

Jeremy Arnott

Jeremy Arnott is a Masters Student at the University of Western Ontario's Centre for Theory and Criticism. His research elaborates the concept of 'correspondence' as a tool to read the work of Benjamin and Adorno.
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