Politics, history and critique of modernity: the contemporary reception of Walter Benjamin on Michael Löwy and Daniel Bensaïd

Abstract

Based on the doctoral research in progress (in the PPG in Sociology at the IFCH, UNICAMP, with a scholarship from FAPESP), "Politics, history and critique of modernity: the contemporary reception of Walter Benjamin on Michael Löwy and Daniel Bensaïd", and according to the opinion recommended on the latest report, the most general purpose of conducting a one-year research internship in France is to understand and to systematize the impact that the "discovery" and incorporation of Benjamin's work caused on the intellectual careers of Michael Löwy and Daniel Bensaïd, based on the transformations on the socio-historical context of the period. On the border between the sociology of the culture and the social history of the intellectuals, it is intended to emphasize how the reading of Benjamin's works has transformed the relationship of these authors with their jewish family origins, as well as their perceptions of jewish messianism, thus stressing the importance of understanding their intellectual careers "before" and "after" the incorporation of the german philosopher reflections. The question of Judaism is decisive in this context, because it establishes an analytical parameter that is able to link, dialectally, the biographical and intellectual trajectories of both authors, among their reading on Benjamin's work. The central hypothesis is that the similarities and differences between their points of view of Jewish theology, and between their attitudes toward their jewish family origins, influences the affinities and the differences between their interpretations of "messianic marxism" from Walter Benjamin. Therefore, it is proposed as the place of performance of the stage the Centre d'Études Interdisciplinaires des Faits Religieux (CEIFR), the research center to which belongs Michael Löwy, linked to L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques (CNRS), in Paris. (AU)