PHILIPPE LACOUE-LABARTHE’S INTERPRETATION OF WALTER BENJAMIN IN HEIDEGGER AND THE POLITICS OF POETRY

Abstract

Walter Benjamin is a persistent but elusive presence in many of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s writings, and the relationship between Lacoue-Labarthe and Benjamin is accordingly both significant and difficult to grasp. In Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry (2002), Lacoue-Labarthe more explicitly and directly engages with Benjamin than anywhere else. Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry continues the project of Heidegger, Art and Politics (1987). That is, it continues Lacoue-Labarthe’s attempt to come to terms with Heidegger’s political engagement with German National Socialism. Accordingly, this article starts by outlining Lacoue-Labarthe’s approach to Heidegger’s politics in Heidegger, Art and Politics. It then considers how Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry continues Lacoue-Labarthe’s criticism of Heidegger and what roles Benjamin plays in this. The third section takes a closer look at Lacoue-Labarthe’s interpretation of Benjamin in Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry and argues that Lacoue-Labarthe’s Benjamin is exceedingly Heideggerian. This is intriguing since Lacoue-Labarthe often opposes Benjamin to Heidegger in order to distance himself from the latter. The conclusion argues that Benjamin nevertheless allows Lacoue-Labarthe to articulate his own position vis-à-vis Heidegger.

Keywords:

• Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe
• Walter Benjamin
• Martin Heidegger
• Friedrich Hölderlin
• deconstruction
• Romanticism

disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

I would like to thank Dr Alex Thomson (University of Edinburgh) for his generous and patient support. Without his critical and encouraging feedback this article would not have been written. I would also like to thank the anonymous Angelaki reviewers, whose comments helped me put the finishing touches to this essay.

1 See Jay; Magun.

2 See, for example, “The Caesura of the Speculative” and “Hölderlin and the Greeks” in Typography; Poetry as Experience; Heidegger, Art and Politics; Musica Ficta.

3 See, for instance, Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy 297; HAP 77, 80; HPP 24.

4 In HPP, “Verlagerung des Mythologischen” is translated as “deposing of the mythological,” which is awkward (HPP 51, 76). “Dislocation of the mythological” is the more accurate translation offered in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings: Volume 1.

5 See also “Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe: Interview of June 22, 2000” (388).

6 Peter Poiana has observed this same “law” with regard to the interaction between Lacoue-Labarthe and Derrida in “Dangerous Identifications.”

7 The German reads: “Diese Sphäre, welche für jede Dichtung eine besondere Gestalt hat, wird als das Gedichtete bezeichnet […] Diese Einheit erhält ihre besondere Gestalt als innere Form der besonderen Schöpfung” (Benjamin, “Zwei Gedichte” 105–06). In French, Lacoue-Labarthe translates it as follows: “Cette sphere, qui possède pour chaque poésie une figure particulière, nous la définissons come le dictamen […] Cette unité reçoit sa figure particulière comme forme interne de la creation particulière” (Benjamin qtd in Lacoue-Labarthe, Heidegger: La Politique du poeme 138–39).