Beibei Guan - Baudelaire Contra Benjamin: A Critique of Politicized Aesthetics and Cultural Marxism

Advisory Board

Richard Avaramenko, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Linda Beail, Point Loma Nazarene University

Claudia Franziska Brhwiler, University of St. Gallen

Timothy Burns, Baylor University

Paul A. Cantor, University of Virginia

Joshua Foa Dienstag, University of California at Los Angeles

Lilly Goren, Carroll University

Natalie Taylor, Skidmore College

Ann Ward, University of Regina

Catherine Heldt Zuckert, University of Notre Dame

Recent Titles

Miltons Socratic Rationalism: The Conversations of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost, by David Oliver Davies

Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer, by Brian A. Smith

Romanticism and Civilization: Love, Marriage and Family in Rousseaus Julie, by Mark Kremer

Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters, by Alessandro Maurini

Sinclair Lewis and American Democracy, by Steven Michels

Liberty, Individuality, and Democracy in Jorge Luis Borges, by Alejandra M. Salinas

Philip Roth and American Liberalism: Historical Content and Literary Form in the Later Works, by Andy Connolly

Seeing through the Screen: Interpreting American Political Film, by Bruce E. Altschuler

Cowboy Politics: Myths and Discourses in Popular Westerns from The Virginian to Unforgiven and Deadwood, by John S. Nelson

Beyond Free Speech and Propaganda: The Political Development of Hollywood, 19071927, by John D. Steinmetz

Politics, Hollywood Style: American Politics in Film from Mr. Smith to Selma, by John Heyrman

Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywoods Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats, by Michelle C. Pautz

The Pursuit of Happiness and the American Regime: Political Theory in Literature, by Elizabeth Amato

Imagination and Environmental Political Thought: The Aftermath of Thoreau, by Joshua J. Bowman

The American Road Trip and American Political Thought, by Susan McWilliams Barndt

Flattering the Demos: Fiction and Democratic Education, by Travis Smith and Marlene Sokolon

Soul of Statesmanship: Shakespeare on Nature, Virtue, and Political Wisdom, by Khalil M. Habib and L. Joseph Hebert Jr.

The United States Constitution in Film: Part of Our National Culture, by Eric Kasper and Quentin Vieregge

Short Stories and Political Philosophy: Power, Prose, and Persuasion, by Erin A. Dolgoy, Kimberly Hurd Hale, and Bruce Peabody

Human Nature and Politics in Utopian and Anti-Utopian Fiction, by Nivedita Bagchi

Wonder and Cruelty: Ontological War in Its a Wonderful Life, by Steven Johnston

Rabelaiss Contempt for Fortune: Pantagruelism, Politics, and Philosophy, by Timothy Haglund

The Coen Brothers and the Comedy of Democracy, by Barry Craig and Sara MacDonald

Popular Culture and the Political Values of Neoliberalism, by George A. Gonzalez

The Final Frontier: International Relations and Politics through Star Trek and Star Wars, by Joel R. Campbell and Gigi Gokcek

We Govern by Tenderness: Flannery OConnor and the Perils of Modern Political Thought in America, by Jerome C. Foss

The Politics of Twin Peaks, edited by Amanda DiPaolo and James Clark Gillies

AIDS-Trauma and Politics: American Literature and the Search for a Witness, by Aimee Pozorski

Baudelaire Contra Benjamin: A Critique of Politicized Aesthetics and Cultural Marxism, by Beibei Guan and Wayne Cristaudo

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Guan, Beibei, 1980 author. | Cristaudo, Wayne, 1954 author.

Title: Baudelaire contra Benjamin : a critique of politicized aesthetics and cultural Marxism / Beibei Guan, Wayne Cristaudo.

Description: Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2019] | Series: Politics, literature, and film | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019014598 (print) | LCCN 2019018511 (ebook) | ISBN 9781498595087 (electronic) | ISBN 9781498595070 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Baudelaire, Charles, 18211867Criticism and interpretation. | Benjamin, Walter, 18921940. | Politics and literature.

Classification: LCC PQ2191.Z5 (ebook) | LCC PQ2191.Z5 G76 2019 (print) | DDC 841/.8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019014598

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To Wendy Baker

As is evident in the listings of literary studies by academic publishers, or in web displays of interests, publications and subjects offered in university literary departments, literary studies today typically requires the subjection of literature to ethico-political considerations. One of the most important pioneering advocates of that position was Walter Benjamin, with his reading of Baudelaire being an iconic performance of the politicization of aesthetics. His work was also a pioneering example of the deployment of Marxism in the cultural critique of modernity.

Benjamins reading of Baudelaire as a social critique of modernity has had a huge impact upon Baudelaires reception from the latter part of the twentieth century until now, with a plethora of studies either directly on Benjamin and modernity or on themes that take their point of departure from Benjamins analysis. However, the price for accepting Benjamins rendering of Baudelaire as a problematic ally (lacking in a correct political consciousness) of a modernity-critique, is a heavy one that requires putting aside much of what we consider most fascinating about Baudelaires insights and aesthetic expressions into the modern world and the modern self. Baudelaires subject is the human condition and he is arguably a more profound guide for exploring the modern soul than Benjamin. This is the idea guiding this book. Obviously people do not all agree about what insights are profound, and all we can do is present insights of Baudelaire which we consider to have existential philosophical significance and let the reader decide.