(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

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WOLFGANG BOCK
III, 452–80; “Problems in the Sociology of Language,” SW 3, 68–93).
In this text Benjamin discusses his own ideas in a wider context; his interest
is spurred by a mimetic and onomatopoetic function, which he tries
to detach from its “primitive” context and actualize in the contemporary
state of language. 4
The subjects Benjamin addresses in these writings are related to two
versions of his own reflections on language, which he discussed mainly
with Gershom Scholem (GS II.3:934). The first one, “Über Sprache
überhaupt und die Sprache des Menschen” (“On Language as Such and
on the Language of Man”), 5 which he wrote in Munich in 1916, was only
meant to circulate among a small group of adepts, and deals mainly with
words, the written text, and sound-images from the perspective of a comparatist.
Seventeen years later he shifted slightly to a point of view that
pays more attention to images and media phenomena, and this led to the
second version (written early in 1933) of his theory of language, with the
title “Lehre vom Ähnlichen” (GS II.1:204–13; “Doctrine of the Similar,”
SW 2:694–98), which that same year was condensed into a shorter adaptation
titled “Über das mimetische Vermögen” (GS II.1:210–13; “On
the Mimetic Faculty,” SW 2:720–22). Unfortunately his friend Scholem,
being himself a historian and specialist of the Jewish cabala, who had recognized
the allusions to the cabala in the first theory, could not understand
the transformation of these motifs to the second version, although
Benjamin sent him a comparison of both theories (GS VII.2:795–96; SW
2:717–19). Only after Benjamin’s death did Scholem realize the complicated
relationship between the different versions. 6
Naming and Translation
In this essay we will focus on the development of Benjamin’s language
theory from the first version of 1916 to the second of 1933 and then,
in reverse chronological order, point out connections to the work “Die
Aufgabe des Übersetzers” of 1923. Benjamin’s theory of modernity had
at the beginning of the century made space in his own thinking for motifs
from other cultures, not as a kind of exotic decoration but as a sign of his
affinity with these cultures. Indeed, his texts often anticipate the presentday
debates on postcolonialism. Because it deals with the interrelations
among cultures and languages, his essay on the translator is of especial
interest in this context. Benjamin himself prepared translations of Charles
Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Gabriele D’Annunzio, and others. 7 His various
reflections on language theory originate from diverse starting points
in each case, but follow more or less the same line of thought. In this
chapter I will reconstruct this train of thought in its broad outlines in
order to show its relevance today. Since Benjamin’s reflections are among
the most difficult in the German language, certain simplifications cannot