Walter Benjamin: “The Storyteller” and the Possibility of Wisdom

What is wisdom, and how can it be taught? Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Storyteller” discusses one traditional way of communicating wisdom: through stories. But as Benjamin notes, storytelling is in decline, and this raises important questions concerning the possibility of wisdom, questions that remain more relevant than ever in our own age of electronic information. This paper offers an account of “The Storyteller” as an important, prophetic work that illuminates different aspects of contemporary culture, including understanding, community, and embodiment.