Copyright -- Title Page -- Series Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- The Idea of Melancholy -- Heidegger's Discussion of Moods -- Melancholy in Benjamin -- 1. Benjamin and Freud -- At the Juncture of Melancholy -- Freud's Distinction Between Mourning and Melancholia -- Loss -- Commitment and Loyalty to the Lost Object -- The Intentionless Nature of Truth -- Work and Play: A View of Melancholic Productivity -- 2. The Trauer-Spiel -- Reflections on the Baroque -- Expressions of Pain in the Trauerspiel -- The Bombastic Nature of Expression in the Trauerspiel -- Pain and Spectacle: The Figure of the Martyr -- Death and Meaning: The Figure of the Ghost -- 3. Melancholy and Language -- Language and Loss: Benjamin's Concept of Expression -- Creation and Loss: "On Language as Such" -- Lament: Language and Sadness -- The Ghosts of Language: "The Task of the Translator" -- 4. Melancholy and Truth -- The "Epistemo-Critical Prologue" -- The "Monad": Leibniz and Benjamin -- The Monads' Configuration as a Hierarchy -- A Preestablished Harmony: Benjamin's Conception of Truth as Harmony -- Stimmung: Philosophy and Mood -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Series List.