Herbs and Weeds: Benjamin on Popularity, Using the Example of Switzerland

In his review of Chrut und Uchrut, an extremely successful and popular practical booklet of medicinal herbs, Benjamin tests a new concept of literary criticism. He links the reviewing of the popular guide with reflection on the media-technology-conditioned transformation of criticism. By doing so, he delivers at the same time an accurate physiognomy of Swiss society, whose self-image was more informed by its peasantry than by its working class. It is a test for the procedure that Benjamin, a year later, by using the term new popularity, would describe as emancipatory process, which is directed against the continuous information-response or stimulus-response apparatus. It assumes that the audience’s interest is always active—not passive, as in the stimulus-response model—and that this interest of the people should influence research and the sociology of audience itself.