French Literature Reviews - 2026

Bruno Tackels, Les mille plateaux de Walter Benjamin
Theatre and Performance

This essay retraces the theatrical paths, stages, and fictional works that shaped Walter Benjamin's thought and established him as a true philosophical traveler. The first part outlines the broad contours of the European landscape and its key figures during the interwar period, while the second explores the philosopher's legacy and the pathways it opens up for contemporary theatre.

Walter Benjamin's intense life encapsulates and expresses the powerful suspension that took hold between the two world wars—a period marked by artistic effervescence across various European capitals before the descent into the abyss. When discussing Benjamin's relationship with the theatre, one immediately thinks of his essays on Bertolt Brecht and his writings on epic theatre. However, the significance of these texts should not overshadow his polyphonic appetite for the unknown—an unknown embodied by Asja Lācis, one of the most striking artists of the 20th century, who provided a foundation for the philosopher's theoretical reflections on theatre.

Endowed with an endless curiosity, Walter Benjamin captured the thousand plateaus of his era, including those far removed from his own sensibilities, such as Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical works like Oedipus Rex or Jean Cocteau's Orphée.

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Interwar European intellectual and artistic culture was defined by profound tension, caught between avant-garde experimentation and the looming threat of political catastrophe. Within this intellectual landscape, figures like Walter Benjamin engaged deeply with the shifting dynamics of modernity, media, and performance across various European capitals.

This essay retraces the theatrical paths, stages, and fictional works that shaped Walter Benjamin's thought and established him as a true philosophical traveler, exploring his relationship with Bertolt Brecht, Asja Lācis, and the pathways his legacy opens up for contemporary theatre. Readers interested in twentieth-century intellectual history, European modernism, and the intersection of philosophy and dramatic art may find this essay a relevant companion.