Making things and producing stories: explicating the ideas of Arendt and Benjamin in the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Annotation
This article examines Hannah Arendt’s and Walter Benjamin’s views on the relationship between the creation of things and the creation of stories and their representation in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “The Most Beautiful Drowned Man in the World”. In Vita Activa, Arendt identifies three basic human activities: labor, work, and action, the result of the last of which are the stories people tell. Even earlier, anticipating Arendt’s thoughts, Benjamin linked the decline of the art of storytelling to the replacement of craft by high-tech production in the capitalist society of modernity. In Marquez’s narrative, co-creation and its attendant stories act as a means of overcoming alienation and transforming the strange and foreign into the local and understandable. The article discusses the philosophical and sociological aspects of the concepts in question and their applicability to the solution of contemporary social problems.
Keywords
Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Gabriel García Márquez, alienation, storytelling.
Literature
1. Arendt H. Vita Activa, or On the Active Life / translated from German and English by V. V. Bibikhina. 2nd ed. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press, 2017. 416 p.
2. Beiner R. Hannah Arendt on Judgment // Hannah Arendt. Lectures on the Political Philosophy of Immanuel Kant / translated from English by A. Glukhov. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2012. pp. 147–236.
3. Benjamin V. The Storyteller. Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov // Benjamin V. Illuminations. Moscow: Martis, 2000. Pp. 345–365.
4. García Márquez G. The Most Beautiful Drowned Man in the World // García Márquez G. Nobody Writes to the Colonel: Stories, Short Stories, Essays / trans. from Spanish. Moscow: EKSMO-Press, 2001. Pp. 234–241.
5. Zemskov V. B. Gabriel García Márquez: An Essay on Creativity. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1986. 224 p.
6. Benjamin A. Walter Benjamin and Arendt: A Relation of Sorts // The Bloomsbury Companion to Arendt / ed. by P. Gratton, Y. Sary. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Pp. 149–158.
References
1. Arendt, H. (2017). Vita Activa, or On Active Life [The Human Condition]. Moscow: Ad-Marginem Press Publ. 416 pp. (In Russian).
2. Beiner, R. (2012). Hannah Arendt on Judgment [Hannah Arendt on Judgment] // Arendt, H. Lectures on the Political Philosophy of I. Kant. Saint Petersburg: Nauka Publ. pp. 147–236. (In Russian).
3. Benjamin, W. (2000). The Storyteller. Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov [The Storyteller. Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov] // Benjamin, W. Ozareniia. Moscow: Martis Publ. S. 345–365. (In Russian).
4. García Márquez, G. (2001). The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World // García Márquez, G. Nobody Writes to the Colonel: Novels, Stories, Essays. Moscow: EKSMO-Press Publ. S. 234–241. (In Russian).
5. Zemskov, V. B. (1986). Gabriel García Márquez: a sketch of work. Moscow: Khudozh. lit. Publ. 224 pp. (In Russian).
6. Benjamin, A. (2021) Walter Benjamin and Arendt: A Relation of Sorts // Gratton P., Sari Y. (editors). The Bloomsbury Companion to Arendt. Bloomsbury academic. pp. 149–158. (In English).