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The Fractured Subject

Walter Benjamin and Sigmund Freud

Betty Schulz

The Fractured Subject investigates the relationship of the work of Walter Benjamin and Sigmund Freud, centered around the concept of the fractured subject. Through a reading of Benjamin’s work on sovereignty and myth, Betty Schulz establishes the emergence of this fractured subject in the Baroque and links these themes to ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ and two of Freud’s case studies, showing that melancholia and possession emerge as two responses to the baroque loss of a cosmological horizon. Turning to Benjamin’s work on the nineteenth century in the Arcades Project, Schulz delineates the persistence of this fractured subject, showing how Benjamin conceptualises its development over the course of modernity while analyzing the change of memory and experience in modernity. Finally, having introduced the importance of the dream in the Arcades Project and associated work, Schulz examines Benjamin’s dream theory, establishing the ways it draws from Freud, as well as Benjamin’s concept of awakening as a therapeutic, collective, political gesture that points beyond the fractured subject.

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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 224 • Trim: 6½ x 9
978-1-5381-6336-8 • Hardback • February 2023 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
978-1-5381-6338-2 • Paperback • January 2026 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
Series: Founding Critical Theory
Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory, Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis

Betty Schulz gained her PhD from the Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) after completing a Masters in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex. Her PhD research was funded by the TECHNE consortium. She is currently preparing a postdoctoral research proposal on the concept of nature in contemporary continental Philosophy and Anthropology.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Baroque Sovereignty and the Fractured Subject

Chapter 2 - Melancholia, Possession, Critique

Chapter 3 – Beyond the Pleasure Principle in the Arcades

Chapter 4- The Types of the 19th century: Benjamin’s Case Studies

Chapter 5 - Dreaming

Chapter 6 - Awakening

Bibliography

About the Author

The absence of a sustained exploration of Benjamin’s relationship to Freud has long felt like a serious and puzzling gap in Anglophone scholarship on the great German writer. Lucid, tightly conceived and replete with bold readings and insights, The Fractured Subject addresses this gap admirably, opening up a rich and fascinating seam of future discussion and debate.


— Josh Cohen, Goldsmiths, University of London


From melancholy to the dream-work and through death drive to awakening, Schulz's book tracks the insistent but elusive presence of Freud in Benjamin's work. Her sustained scrutiny of Benjamin's debts and resistances to Freud and psychoanalysis reveals previously unsuspected analytic and therapeutic dimensions to his thought and criticism.


— Howard Caygill, Kingston University, London


The Fractured Subject

Walter Benjamin and Sigmund Freud

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
Summary
Summary
  • The Fractured Subject investigates the relationship of the work of Walter Benjamin and Sigmund Freud, centered around the concept of the fractured subject. Through a reading of Benjamin’s work on sovereignty and myth, Betty Schulz establishes the emergence of this fractured subject in the Baroque and links these themes to ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ and two of Freud’s case studies, showing that melancholia and possession emerge as two responses to the baroque loss of a cosmological horizon. Turning to Benjamin’s work on the nineteenth century in the Arcades Project, Schulz delineates the persistence of this fractured subject, showing how Benjamin conceptualises its development over the course of modernity while analyzing the change of memory and experience in modernity. Finally, having introduced the importance of the dream in the Arcades Project and associated work, Schulz examines Benjamin’s dream theory, establishing the ways it draws from Freud, as well as Benjamin’s concept of awakening as a therapeutic, collective, political gesture that points beyond the fractured subject.

Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 224 • Trim: 6½ x 9
    978-1-5381-6336-8 • Hardback • February 2023 • $115.00 • (£88.00)
    978-1-5381-6338-2 • Paperback • January 2026 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
    Series: Founding Critical Theory
    Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Critical Theory, Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis
Author
Author
  • Betty Schulz gained her PhD from the Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) after completing a Masters in Social and Political Thought at the University of Sussex. Her PhD research was funded by the TECHNE consortium. She is currently preparing a postdoctoral research proposal on the concept of nature in contemporary continental Philosophy and Anthropology.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Chapter 1 - Baroque Sovereignty and the Fractured Subject

    Chapter 2 - Melancholia, Possession, Critique

    Chapter 3 – Beyond the Pleasure Principle in the Arcades

    Chapter 4- The Types of the 19th century: Benjamin’s Case Studies

    Chapter 5 - Dreaming

    Chapter 6 - Awakening

    Bibliography

    About the Author

Reviews
Reviews
  • The absence of a sustained exploration of Benjamin’s relationship to Freud has long felt like a serious and puzzling gap in Anglophone scholarship on the great German writer. Lucid, tightly conceived and replete with bold readings and insights, The Fractured Subject addresses this gap admirably, opening up a rich and fascinating seam of future discussion and debate.


    — Josh Cohen, Goldsmiths, University of London


    From melancholy to the dream-work and through death drive to awakening, Schulz's book tracks the insistent but elusive presence of Freud in Benjamin's work. Her sustained scrutiny of Benjamin's debts and resistances to Freud and psychoanalysis reveals previously unsuspected analytic and therapeutic dimensions to his thought and criticism.


    — Howard Caygill, Kingston University, London


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