The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (German: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit; originally published in Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung) is a 1936 essay by German cultural critic Walter Benjamin, which has been influential across the humanities, and especially in the fields of cultural studies, media theory, architectural theory[1] and art history. Written at a time when Adolf Hitler was already Chancellor of Germany, it was produced, Benjamin wrote, in the effort to describe a theory of art that would be "useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art". In the absence of any traditional, ritualistic value, art in the age of mechanical reproduction would inherently be based on the practice of politics.
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[edit] Influence
John Berger drew on ideas from the essay for Ways of Seeing, his four part television series, and subsequent book, for the BBC first broadcast in 1972. Berger's point, which he made far more explicitly than Benjamin, is that the modern means of production have destroyed the authority of art: "For the first time ever, images of art have become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, valueless, free."[2]
The essay also had a major influence on the Frankfurt School and their aesthetic and political analysis, particularly Theodor W Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse.[3]
[edit] Typo or mis-translation?
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The English translation of the essay, first published by the publishing house Johnathan Cape, and later by Fontana Press (part of Harper Collins) contains a prominent mistake, assumed to be a mis-translation or typing error. The translator's name is not mentioned. The last two sentences of the Introduction in the original German sentence read:
"Die im folgenden neu in die Kunsttheorie eingeführten Begriffe unterscheiden sich von geläufigeren dadurch, daß sie für die Zwecke des Faschismus vollkommen unbrauchbar sind. Dagegen sind sie zur Formulierung revolutionärer Forderungen in der Kunstpolitik brauchbar."
The English translation should read:
"The concepts which are introduced into the theory of art in what follows differ from the more familiar terms in that they are completely useless for the purposes of fascism. They are, on the other hand, useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art."
However, the words "purposes of fascism. They are, on the other hand, useful for the" are missing. The resultant single sentence makes sense grammatically but inadvertently inverts Benjamin's meaning:
"The concepts which are introduced into the theory of art in what follows differ from the more familiar terms in that they are completely useless for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art."[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Brian Elliot, Benjamin for Architects, Routledge, London, 2011.
- ^ John Berger, Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books, London, 1972, pp. 32-34.
- ^ George Friedman, The Political Philosophy of the Frankfurt School. Cornell University Press, New York, 1988.
- ^ Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. Tr. Harry Zohn. Fontana Press, London, 1972, reprinted in 1992, p. 212.
[edit] External links
- The press release for Leo Asemota's "After Walter"
- Complete text of the essay, translated
- Partial text of the essay, with commentary by Detlev Schöttker (German)
- Complete text in German (German)
