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Homer rather than Hegel: On Arendt’s political thinking and its roots in literature

The global intellectual community has long recognized Hannah Arendt as one of the crucial voices of the 20th century. In her 2019 book "Hannah Arendt: Die Kunst, politisch zu denken" (Hannah Arendt: The Art of Thinking Politically), Maike Weißpflug explores what one could call Arendt’s version of political criticism, where 'the political', for Arendt, is the "sphere of appearance, of opinion, and plurality". Yet beyond the purely political dimension, Weißpflug also traces the lasting influence of literature on Arendt's thought and her relevance to political thinking in the age of the Anthropocene. Not primarily as an academic text, Weißpflug's book, according to BRB reviewer Mario Clemens, presents to us a Hannah Arendt who can teach us a way of thinking about political problems that has the potential to open up new avenues of thought and counter prevailing wisdom.

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Work and Structure

Writer Wolfgang Herrndorf committed suicide in the summer of 2013, at age 48. He was best known for his bestselling novel "Tschick", which garnered Herrndorf many literary accolades, even as he was diagnosed with a brain tumour shortly before its publication. Herrndorf documented his thoughts and the final years of his life in a blog, which has now been published as a book entitled "Arbeit und Struktur" ("Work and Structure", Rowohlt, Berlin 2013). The title is derived from a comment by one of many doctors (Herrndorf, in his diary, resorts to referring them by numbers), who had recommended "work and structure" as a way of confronting fear and despair. Yet, as reviewer Frank Berzbach observes, no matter how depressing the diary’s entries are getting, at no point does Herrndorf allow his suffering to wrest control of his life from him: "This, indeed, is a reason to read his book: so as to maintain the upper hand, come what may. So as not to be driven to madness, or to escapism."

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Welcome to The Berlin Review of Books

The Berlin Review of Books aims to publish high-quality reviews of, and insightful essays based on, important recent books published in any language, with a focus on non-fiction. While it will often approach contemporary debates from a European perspective, it is open to intelligent contributions from around the globe. Our goal is to promote honest and knowledgeable debate of issues of real significance; for this reason, we are committed to financial and editorial independence. The Berlin Review of Books does not normally publish fiction or poetry, except by invitation.

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