ENGL 65FM Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Starry Sky, Walter Benjamin
21 May 2018
Happy are those ages when the starry sky is the map of all possible paths-ages whose path
are illuminated by the light of the stars. Everything in such ages is new and yet familiar, full
of adventure and yet their own. The world is wide and yet it is like a home, for the fire that
burns in the soul is of the same essential nature as the stars; the world and the self, the
light and the fire, are sharply distinct, yet they never become permanent strangers to one
another, for fire is the soul of all light and all fire clothes itself in light. Thus each action of
the soul becomes meaningful and rounded in this duality: complete in meaning-in sense-
and complete for the…
● What has meaning is the totality-the total world; recognized by everyone;
● Every action, the soul-the character him/herself
● Complete in meaning, in sense-all of your life’s sense are not viewed as
problems but rather attach you to the total world-shared meaning;
● Georg Lukacs-Transcendental Homelessness
○ Philosophy is homesickness
○ The urge to be home everywhere
○ Try to find core meaning, to make the world a home again
○ For him, that doesn’t work out at all
○ The novel, as a form, becomes prevalent
○ People are sutured into these narratives
○ The old parallelism, epic poem and the meaning of life (for example),
is now split
○ The ultimate faces of artistic creation has become homeless
■ Kant describes modernity as in-transcendental humanity; vs.
■ Lukacs-meaning has drained out the meaning in the world, left
everyone homeless because no more shared totality present-
--Transcendental Homeless
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Happy are those ages when the starry sky is the map of all possible paths-ages whose path are illuminated by the light of the stars. Everything in such ages is new and yet familiar, full of adventure and yet their own. Thus each action of the soul becomes meaningful and rounded in this duality: complete in meaning-in sense- and complete for the . What has meaning is the (cid:522)totality(cid:523)-the total world; recognized by everyone; Complete in meaning, in sense-all of your life"s sense are not viewed as problems but rather attach you to the total world-shared meaning; Try to find core meaning, to make the world a home again. For him, that doesn"t work out at all. The novel, as a form, becomes prevalent. The old parallelism, epic poem and the meaning of life (for example), is now split. The ultimate faces of artistic creation has become homeless. Kant describes modernity as in-transcendental humanity; vs.