Posthumous Publication of Jean-Michel Palmier's Monumental Study on Walter Benjamin

Klincksieck has published a 900-page study on Walter Benjamin by the late Jean-Michel Palmier, edited by Florent Perrier. The work, unfinished at Palmier's death in 1998, aims to provide an exhaustive yet non-systematic reading of Benjamin's philosophy, politics, and aesthetics. Palmier argues against reductive interpretations, emphasizing the plurality of Benjamin's thought. The book is structured in two parts: a chronological biography and a thematic exploration of Benjamin's relationship with historical materialism and Marxist concepts. Central to the analysis are three recurring figures in Benjamin's work: the ragpicker, the angel, and the hunchback dwarf, which embody his metaphysics of time and history. The ragpicker symbolizes the historian salvaging remnants of the past; the angel, inspired by Paul Klee's painting, represents the catastrophic view of history as perpetual ruin; the hunchback dwarf signifies inexorable misfortune and class consciousness. Palmier highlights Benjamin's acceptance of present sadness and his non-nihilistic despair, as noted by Adorno.