Extreme Life Revolts: Refuge of Philosophical “Objectivity” in the Trauerspiel-book

In Origin of the German Trauerspiel, Benjamin criticizes two basic approaches to genre-analysis: the inductive and the deductive. With these criticisms, he addresses the possibility of an alternatively philosophical presentation of genre. Philosophical presentation of the idea of a genre requires a style that is not confined to induction and deduction. Life is always extreme, is always an exception, in relation to inductive and deductive conclusions about it. The objectivity of philosophy is its presentation (Darstellung) of life in this extremity. Life in revolt is the possibility of objectivity in analysis of it. This objectivity is ultimately beyond, extreme in relation to, all else. Benjamin’s philosophical approach to genre addresses an objectivity in which life and its correlate, the meaning of existence, cannot rest in history. The revolt of life—of life in its goodness—remains insubordinate to the claims, the evil, of presumptive knowledge. Philosophy is a refuge of life’s revolt against the discernible occurrences that may be said to befall life. The basis of this refuge is melancholy or mourning, which in the trauerspiel-book are not entirely distinct. From this basis, there ensues persistent receptivity to the object of consideration.