Il neo-marxismo di Walter Benjamin.

The article discusses Walter Benjamin’s reception and adaptation of both Marx’s writings and contemporary Marxist discourse, arguing that the “Marxist Benjamin” cannot be understood as just a fellow-traveller of early Frankfurt School. Departing on the one hand from György Lukács’s History and Class Consciousness (1923) as well as closely working, on the other, both with Theodor W. Adorno and Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin’s original take on Marx and historical materialism traverses and transcends the discourse of Neo-Marxism, pointing to (post) surrealist as well as psychoanalytical discourses. The first section of the article introduces the development, posthumous reception and context of Benjamin’s Marxism. The second section focuses on Benjamin’s political emphasis on class struggle and a new historical materialist concept of (counter) history. The third one presents Benjamin’s theory of revolution and its anti-progressivist thrust. The last section examines Benjamin’s reception of Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism and his intervention into the discourse of Neo-Marxist ideology critique. Finally, the last part raises the question of Benjamin’s symptomatic (mis)understanding of Marx’s critique of political economy and concept of “capital”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]