Towards an Altered Subject. Walter Benjamin's Ethnolinguistic Studies

我的DPhil研究项目关注的是一种思维模式，我称之为沉着，这是一个植根于德国哲学的术语。这是思想家、作家和批评家沃尔特·本杰明(1892-1940)的作品中流行的一个观点，本杰明是20世纪德国思想史上的杰出人物。盖斯特格根沃特在本雅明的思想中占有中心地位(参见达特林格，2022年)，作为一种立场，它能够通过让我们以不同的方式看待我们关注的对象来扰乱我们习惯性的思维过程。坐在语言和文化理论与心灵哲学的交汇点上，我的研究集中在本雅明智力生活中一个未被探索的领域，这一领域主要影响了他的思想：他对土著语言的持续而广泛的人类学兴趣。特别值得注意的是本雅明对墨西哥研究的研究，以及他对那环语的长期关注，这些到目前为止一直没有被注意到。我的论文是第一个表明本雅明的盖斯特格根沃特概念产生于他对非西方语言的持续接触的研究，他最初是作为学生开始接触非西方语言，并在他的晚年继续这种接触。本雅明的语言研究在他的哲学和人类学思想中扮演着重要的角色，这一思想既被认为是他的主题，也是他的方法论(见达特林格/摩根/费兰，2012)。我的项目将通过对本杰明接触外语的重要性的更深入、更细致入微的理解来补充这项研究。他对土著语言和文化的积极参与与他对经验和认知之间的联系的兴趣尤其相关(见韦伯，2010)。我的项目将有助于理解本雅明的语言习得，将其作为一种超越西方范式的世界观。这为本雅明的研究提供了一个新的非欧洲受众，并引发了以下问题：1.本雅明的多语言观如何塑造和促进他的人类学、跨文化研究方法？2.本雅明从非欧洲语言习得中获得的知识如何增强他对超越西方范式的人类思维的理解？3.本雅明对其Geistesgegenwart理论主客体关系的激进重新评估可以得出什么结论？在我参与该项目的第一年，我发现了本雅明的民族语言学研究，并认识到这些研究对他的工作具有深远的意义。我特别注意了本杰明的手写笔记和信件，它们保存在柏林的沃尔特·本杰明档案馆，因为它们为本杰明的方法论和他的思想发展提供了宝贵的见解。我的档案工作开辟了新的视角和探究路线，在此基础上，我将系统地分析本雅明在他的语言理论中对主客体的重新解释，特别是他是如何理解说话人的位置的。此外，我检查了与我的前提有关的二手文献，导致了对相关研究的第一次全面调查。在此基础上，我能够准确地指出本雅明的民族语言学研究及其关于语言和文化多样性的哲学含义是当前研究的一个空白。在我的论文中，我追溯了本雅明的思想和方法是如何通过他的外语知识产生的视角发生变化的。我让本杰明通向一个迄今被忽视的关于民族学的知识分子话语，以阐明非西方语言和文化对20世纪思想史的意义。除了本杰明的研究，我的项目有可能有助于更深入地理解欧洲现代主义思想家是如何协调超越西方范式的主客体关系的。

My DPhil research project focuses on a mode of thinking which I refer to as presence of mind, Geistesgegenwart, a term rooted in German philosophy. It is an idea that is prevalent in the work of the thinker, writer and critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), the towering figure in 20th-century German intellectual history. Geistesgegenwart has a central place in Benjamin's thought (see Duttlinger, 2022) as a stance able to disrupt our habitual thought process by making us see the objects of our attention differently. Sitting at the intersection of linguistic and cultural theory and philosophy of mind, my research focuses on an underexplored area of Benjamin's intellectual life that has majorly influenced his thought: his sustained and wide-ranging anthropological interest in indigenous languages. Particularly noteworthy are Benjamin's studies of Mexican studies and his long-lasting preoccupation with the Nahuan languages, which have hitherto gone unnoticed. My thesis is the first study which shows that Benjamin's concept of Geistesgegenwart emerged from his sustained engagement with non-western languages, on which he first embarked as a student and which he continued throughout his later life. Benjamin's language studies play a significant role in his philological and anthropological thought, which is considered both his subject and his methodology (see Duttlinger/Morgan/Phelan, 2012). My project will complement this research by contributing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the importance of Benjamin's engagement with foreign languages. His active engagement with indigenous languages and cultures is particularly relevant for his interest in the connections between experience and cognition (see Weber, 2010).My project will contribute to the understanding of Benjamin's language acquisition as an approach to a worldview that transcends western paradigms. This opens up Benjamin research to a new non-European audience and raises the following questions:1. How does Benjamin's multilingualism shape and facilitate his anthropological, transcultural approach?2. How does Benjamin's knowledge gained from non-European language acquisition enhance his understanding of the human mind beyond western paradigms?3. What conclusions can be drawn from Benjamin's radical reassessment of the subject-object relation for his theory of Geistesgegenwart?During my first year on the project, I uncovered Benjamin's ethnolinguistic studies and recognised their far-reaching significance for his work. I paid particular attention to Benjamin's handwritten notes and correspondence, held at the Walter Benjamin archive in Berlin, as they provide valuable insight into Benjamin's methodology and the development of his thought. My archive work opened up new perspectives and lines of enquiry, on the basis of which I will articulate a systematic analysis of Benjamin's reinterpretation of the subject-object in his theory of language and specifically how he understands the position of the speaker. Furthermore, I examined the secondary literature with regard to my premise, resulting in a first, comprehensive survey of relevant research. On this basis, I was able to pinpoint Benjamin's ethnolinguistic studies and their philosophical implications of linguistic and cultural diversity as a gap in the current research. In my dissertation, I trace how Benjamin's thought and method are subject to change through the perspectives that emerge from his knowledge of foreign languages. I open up Benjamin towards a hitherto overlooked intellectual discourse on ethnology to shed light on the significance of non-western languages and cultures for 20th-century intellectual history. Beyond Benjamin studies, my project has the potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of how European modernist thinkers reconceived of subject-object relations beyond western paradigms.