Myth and Metropolis

Walter Benjamin is now widely recognized as one of the most original and perceptive thinkers of the twentieth century. This book, now available in paperback is a timely and lucid study of Benjamin's lifelong fascination with the city and forms of metropolitan experience. Benjamin's critical and complex account of the modern urban environment is traced through a number of key texts: the pioneering sketches of Naples, Marseilles and Moscow; his childhood reminiscences of Berlin; and his brilliant and unfinished studies of nineteenth-century Paris and the poet Charles Baudelaire. Gilloch emphasizes the importance of these writings for an interpretation of Benjamin's work as a whole, and highlights their relevance for our contemporary understanding of modernity. Essential reading for anyone concerned with Benjamin's work, Myth and Metropolis will also be of interest to scholars and students in social theory, cultural analysis and urban studies.