Leena Petersen (Sussex): ‘Messianic Libertarianism & Linguistic Philosophies of History in Benjamin’

The double approach of libertarian and utopian revolutionary thought characterises several Jewish thinkers from Central Europe. Even though they constitute an extremely heterogeneous group, they were nevertheless unified by this common problem. Within a cultural neo-romantic background and in a relationship of elective affinity, it is not surprising that a certain number of Jewish thinkers of German culture, close to anti-capitalist romanticism, simultaneously chose these two roads under the form of the (re)discovery of the Jewish religion and of sympathy or identification with revolutionary utopias heavily charged with nostalgia for the past. For some, this constellation was a transient episode of their intellectual itinerary (Lukács); for others it was the central axis of all their work (Benjamin). The paper will investigate the relation between messianic libertarianism and those philosophies of history focusing language; in particular, Benjamin’s and related writings will be considered and brought into context with the potential archival dimensions of their approach.