Book Launch: John Schad, Walter Benjamin’s Ark: A Departure in Biography

Walter Benjamin’s Ark re-reads the life and work of Walter Benjamin via the curious life of his only child, Stefan Raphael Benjamin. The focal point is Stefan’s dramatic voyage from England to Australia on the HMT Dunera in July 1940. On board were a few British soldiers guarding over 2000 interned male Enemy Aliens, mostly Germans. Some of the internees were passionate Nazis, but most were Jewish refugees. Among them were obscure men with famous names such as Wittgenstein, Kafka, Marx and Wilde. 

The book is an experiment in creative critical biography that will fascinate readers of Benjamin as much as anyone with an interest in European modernism and intellectual history. 

“By turns séance, vaudeville routine and somnabulistic seminar, and constantly invaded by refugee voices from the written words of Benjamin and others, this is a haunting, haunted voyage through a dream history of the Second World War. Once more, John Schad has come up with a wholly new, and utterly unforgettable way of writing history.”                                   Steven Connor, King’s College London

The event will feature readings from the book, followed by a conversation between John Schad and Mona Benjamin, Walter Benjamin’s granddaughter. 

John Schad is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Lancaster and author of several works of experimental criticism, including Someone Called Derrida (Sussex, 2007), The Late Walter Benjamin (2012), Paris Bride (2020) and (with Fred Dalmasso) Derrida | Benjamin. Two Plays for the Stage (2021).

This book launch is sponsored by UCL’s PhD programme in Creative Critical Writing.

Benjamin’s Ark is available open access on this link: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/walter-benjamins-ark/