Writing and Experience: Reading Walter Benjamin's 'Franz Kafka'

Abstract

The problem that concerns me in this paper is a limitation on the idea of the autonomous self, and my aim, in resisting this, is not only to give careful attention to an otherness to ourselves, but also to reconsider the act of writing in the light of what Walter Benjamin understands as its mimetic aspect. For in writing, we find a way of capturing what otherwise escapes us. It begins by explaining Benjamin's concern with the form of language in relation to 'the mimetic faculty of human being'. Second, with regard to this mimetic faculty 'the correspondences', in which human beings can touch the mystic aspects of the world is considered. Third, in order to think about the mimetic aspect of writing, Benjamin's essay on Franz Kafka is examined. In conclusion, I suggest a way in which we can understand writing in terms of its ethical conduct.