Hannah Arendt Center Presents

The Difficulties in Transmission: Arendt with Benjamin across the Atlantic

Silvia Lorusso is a PhD candidate at Sapienza University of Rome, where she pursues a research on the plural temporalities of Tradition and Revolution under the lens of Hannah Arendt’s encounter with Walter Benjamin’s thought and work.

Focusing on Arendt’s role in the transmission of Benjamin’s work across the Atlantic, her project questions the limits of “transmissibility” of the past throughout material destruction, loss, oblivion and the resurgence of possibilities for political change.

As Arendt notably says in the portrait of his friend, “Walter Benjamin knew that the break in tradition and the loss of authority which occurred in his lifetime were irreparable, and he concluded that he had to discover new ways of dealing with the past” (Illuminations, 38).

Illuminated by Benjamin’s critique of mainstream historiography, Arendt’s historical analysis and diagnosis of the break of tradition – together with the idea of the “lost treasures” of revolutionary modernity – is confronted with the problem of the relations of oppression underpinning the patrilineal constitution of heritage, legacy and culture.

At the same time, Benjamin’s weak messianism takes on a new form within the temporal tension that runs through Arendt’s conception of natality, as an earth-bound condition and a capacity for unexpected ruptures, which enters in the historical matter of the world and clashes with the problem of enduring political institutions.

During her research at the Collection of Arendt’s Personal Library, Silvia is researching on the Benjamin’s constellation of sources, combining biographical references with broader reflections on literature, critique and politics. Furthermore, she is particularly dwelling on the sources from the 1960s on slavery and oppression that help to clarify Arendt’s critical historiography of modern revolutions in the transatlantic context and her understanding of violence.

Learn more about our Visiting Scholar program

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For more information, call 845-758-6822.

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Arendt Center

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