On Walter Benjamin’s Idea of Chinese Thought in the Review on Kafka

Abstract

In “Franz Kafka—On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death”, Walter Benjamin quoted three characteristics of Chinese culture from Franz Rosenzweig’s The Star of Redemption. While these qualities in Rosenzwig’s book are negative and low-dimensional, they are transformed into positive ones and helpful to decipher the enigmatic world of Kafka’s works in Benjamin’s essay.