The Alienation of Passions: The Image of the World of the German Trauerspiel According to Walter Benjamin

Abstract

In this article, I explain Walter Benjamin's interpretation of the German Baroque image of the world based on an analysis of book Origin of the German Trauerspiel. I demonstrate that this image is a unique and novel idea of natural history, produced through a process of secularization and syncretism between ancient mythologies and medieval European Christian thought. I argue this idea corresponds to the presupposition that the world is driven by passions alien to human beings and therefore portrays a new form of domination in which there is no room for freedom or salvation.