Each Thing a Thief: Walter Benjamin on the Agency of Objects

Each Thing a Thief Walter Benjamin on the Agency of Objects

In this article Julia Ng addresses the question of material agency. Drawing on an idea that emerges from Marx’s reading of Shakespeare’sTimonto the effect that humanity’s relationship to objects is characterized by “cannibalism,” a usurious relationship based on exploitation and thievery, Ng argues...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy & rhetoric Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 382 - 402
Main Author: Ng, Julia
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Pennsylvania State University Press 01-01-2011
Penn State University Press
Subjects:
Capitalism
Human cannibalism
Human nature
Humans
Materialism
Money
Nature
Philosophical object
State of nature
Usury
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Summary:In this article Julia Ng addresses the question of material agency. Drawing on an idea that emerges from Marx’s reading of Shakespeare’sTimonto the effect that humanity’s relationship to objects is characterized by “cannibalism,” a usurious relationship based on exploitation and thievery, Ng argues that Benjamin’s unique mixing of materialism and the theological serves as an answer to the dilemma of cannibalism and human nature. Looking in particular at Benjamin’s 1931 essay on Karl Kraus—which also discussesTimon—Ng shows that for Benjamin, there is a redemption for this cannibalism, one that is found through recourse to the idea of letting “justice befall the object as such” and, by extension, through the development of a positive determination of life as such as well.
ISSN:0031-8213
1527-2079
DOI:10.5325/philrhet.44.4.0382