But, isn't Timon of Athens Really Trauerspiel?: Walter Benjamin's Modernity

I argue that Shakespeare's Timon of Athens exemplifies the concept of mourning play that Walter Benjamin had in mind when he wrote The Origin of German Tragic Drama. While others have interpreted the play in various ways, no one has attempted to understand Timon in a Benjaminesque manner that s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical horizons : journal of social & critical theory 2015-02, Vol.16 (1), p.70-87
Main Author: Remley, William L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
allegory
cultural theory
modernity
mourning play
social bonds
symbolic
tragedy
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:I argue that Shakespeare's Timon of Athens exemplifies the concept of mourning play that Walter Benjamin had in mind when he wrote The Origin of German Tragic Drama. While others have interpreted the play in various ways, no one has attempted to understand Timon in a Benjaminesque manner that seeks to show the emergence of baroque tragedy as a new aesthetic form at odds with, and liberated from, classical tragedy's mythical foundation and instead premised on historical time and progress. In my discussion, I question the view that Timon possesses inheritable or transmissible human social bonds that can be the subject of annihilation as is the case in Shakespeare's other tragedies. Rather, Benjamin sees in allegory, as illustrated by Timon of Athens, the social condition of modernity replete with suffering, chaos, and violence, but devoid of real human bonds; indeed, it is without human meaning.
ISSN:1440-9917
1568-5160
DOI:10.1179/1440991714Z.00000000041