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Civitas baner

Vol. 33 (2023)

Special issue

Materialism and Melancholy: Readings on the Margins of Max Horkheimer and Walter Benjamin

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35757/CIV.2023.33.04
Submitted: February 2, 2025
Published: October 3, 2025

Abstract

The article analyses the previously unexplored intellectual exchange between Max Horkheimer and Walter Benjamin regarding the relationship between materialism and melancholy. This discussion was based on the critique of Theodor Haecker and the interpretation of Gottfried Keller’s writings. The author reconstructs the concept of the melancholy of the materialist, highlighting its ethical-political potential within the framework of materialist theory. Particular attention is given to the tension between the figure of the materialist and history, the relationship of melancholy to laughter, hedonism, transience, and the Frankfurt School’s program of studying materialism. The analysis of these threads broadens research on the thought of both authors and contemporary materialist philosophy.

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