The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, And Other Writings on Media

by Benjamin, Walter

• ISBN13: 9780674024458
• ISBN10: 0674024451
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-31
• Publisher: Belknap Pr

Summary

Benjaminrs"s famous "Work of Art" essay sets out his boldest thoughts-on media and on culture in general-in their most realized form, while retaining an edge that gets under the skin of everyone who reads it. In this essay the visual arts of the machine age morph into literature and theory and then back again to images, gestures, and thought.This essay, however, is only the beginning of a vast collection of writings that the editors have assembled to demonstrate what was revolutionary about Benjaminrs"s explorations on media. Long before Marshall McLuhan, Benjamin saw that the way a bullet rips into its victim is exactly the way a movie or pop song lodges in the soul.This book contains the second, and most daring, of the four versions of the "Work of Art" essay-the one that addresses the utopian developments of the modern media. The collection tracks Benjaminrs"s observations on the media as they are revealed in essays on the production and reception of art; on film, radio, and photography; and on the modern transformations of literature and painting. The volume contains some of Benjaminrs"s best-known work alongside fascinating, little-known essays-some appearing for the first time in English. In the context of his passionate engagement with questions of aesthetics, the scope of Benjaminrs"s media theory can be fully appreciated.

Table of Contents

A Note on the Texts	p. ix
Editors' Introduction	p. 1
The Production, Reproduction, and Reception of the Work of Art
The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Second Version	p. 19
Theory of Distraction	p. 56
To the Planetarium	p. 58
Garlanded Entrance	p. 60
The Rigorous Study of Art	p. 67
Imperial Panorama	p. 75
The Telephone	p. 77
The Author as Producer	p. 79
Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century	p. 96
Eduard Fuchs, Collector and Historian	p. 116
Review of Sternberger's Panorama	p. 158
Script, Image, Script-Image
Attested Auditor of Books	p. 171
These Surfaces for Rent	p. 173
The Antinomies of Allegorical Exegesis	p. 175
The Ruin	p. 180
Dismemberment of Language	p. 187
Graphology Old and New	p. 192
Painting and Graphics
Painting and the Graphic Arts	p. 219
On Painting, or Sign and Mark	p. 221
A Glimpse into the World of Children's Books	p. 226
Dream Kitsch	p. 236
Moonlit Nights on the Rue La Boetie	p. 240
Chambermaids' Romances of the Past Century	p. 243
Antoine Wiertz: Thoughts and Visions of a Severed Head	p. 249
Some Remarks on Folk Art	p. 254
Chinese Paintings at the Bibliotheque Nationale	p. 257
Photography
News about Flowers	p. 271
Little History of Photography	p. 274
Letter from Paris (2): Painting and Photography	p. 299
Review of Freund's Photographie en France au dix-neuvieme siecle	p. 312
Film
On the Present Situation of Russian Film	p. 323
Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz	p. 328
Chaplin	p. 333
Chaplin in Retrospect	p. 335
Mickey Mouse	p. 338
The Formula in Which the Dialectical Structure of Film Finds Expression	p. 340
The Publishing Industry and Radio
Journalism	p. 353
A Critique of the Publishing Industry	p. 355
The Newspaper	p. 359
Karl Kraus	p. 361
Reflections on Radio	p. 391
Theater and Radio	p. 393
Conversation with Ernst Schoen	p. 397
Two Types of Popularity: Fundamental Reflections on a Radio Play	p. 403
On the Minute	p. 407
Index	p. 411
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