Art and society in Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin: essayism, sociology and cultural criticism
Georg Simmel; Walter Benjamin; essay form; sociology; cultural criticism.
This dissertation investigated the role of essayism, sociology and the arts in the thinking of Georg Simmel (1858-1918) and Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). In this sense, we focus on the writings of Simmel and Benjamin to observe how, from the essayist reflected on the modern social context. To understand the texture of reflection that unites the essay form, sociology, and artistic and literary productions, we propose to analyze in a more detailed way the writings of Simmel and Benjamin that deal with modernism, historical avant-gardes, Goethe’s literature, surrealism, Auguste Rodin’s sculpture, Charles Baudelaire’s lyric, Edgar Allan Poe’s description of modernity and E.T.A Hoffmann’s literary panorama.