Youth and pedagogy (On the genesis of the thought of Walter Benjamin)

Abstract

The authors analyze the 16 early writings that W. Benjamin wrote between the ages of 19 and 23, all of which relate to educative matters, and where the decisive influence of G. Wyneken is shown. The issues that the young Walter Benjamin addresses are also studied, such as idealism and youth culture, the necessity of reform in schools and universities and also in moral, aesthetic and religious education as well as in juvenile sexuality. However, the most important thing is that in these works one can find the constants that characterize the rest of his production, such as his individualism, his obsession with his own childhood experiences, his contradictions and thematic transitions, his interest in aesthetics and art, the complexity of his work, his agnosticism and his consideration of Judaism as a cultural element, and above all his critical sense and his vocation for criticism which starts to become evident. Somehow in these articles of educative content one can discover many of the constants of what will be the subsequent work of this author.

Keywords

• walter benjamin y la educación
• w. benjamin y la juventud
• orígenes del pensamiento de w. benjamin
• w. benjamin y g. wyneken