Schrift / Script: Writing and Image-Character in the Work of Walter Benjamin
Program
Writing, the graphic character of inscription, and its relation to the image forms a central problematic in the work of the German-Jewish critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin. His work might in fact be said to constitute a theory of writing, if that term is understood broadly, so as to include not just issues of signification but of the graphic nature of handwriting and printing, as well as those of inscription and display processes in such diverse media as photography, film, drawing, painting, and architecture. The term “Script” (Schrift) emerges in the 1920’s as the center around which Benjamin’s meditations on the relationship between writing and image crystallize. This conference seeks to provide a forum for the investigation of the production, dissemination, and reception of “script” and the “script-image” that is the basis of all writing. Keynote lectures will be delivered by Peter Fenves, Winfried Menninghaus, and Avital Ronell.