Broken mirror of the world: Language crisis and reflection. Fragment and experience as instruments of truth in Benjamin, Hofmannsthal, and Rilke

Using a selection of Walther Benjamin's essays as a lens through which to view Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Ein Brief and Rainer Maria Rilke's Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge, I attempt to demonstrate how the three authors dealt with the evolving crisis of representation in the early twentieth century in similar fashion. Specifically, Benjamin refined several methods developed by Hofmannsthal and Rilke--specifically the use of fragment, figurative language, and skepticism toward language--to attempt to combat Fascism and solve his personal crisis of representation engendered by his tumultuous social and political circumstances. Although crises of representation are a relatively common phenomenon in literary history, because of the unique social and political circumstances in which these three authors were living, their writings provide especially meaningful insights into the paradoxes of language and subjectivity.