Mapping Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Digital AgeHans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Michael Marrinan Since its publication in 1936, Walter Benjamin’s “Artwork” essay has become a canonical text about the status and place of the fine arts in modern mass culture. Benjamin was especially concerned with the ability of new technologies—notably film, sound recording, and photography—to reproduce works of art in great number. Benjamin could not have foreseen the explosion of imagery and media that has occurred during the past fifty years. Does Benjamin’s famous essay still speak to this new situation? That is the question posed by the editors of this book to a wide range of leading scholars and thinkers across a spectrum of disciplines in the humanities. The essays gathered here do not hazard a univocal reply to that question; rather they offer a rich, wide-ranging critique of Benjamin’s position that refracts and reflects contemporary thinking about the ethical, political, and aesthetic implications of life in the digital age. |
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Contents
AURA DIRK BAECKER | 9 |
HISTORY NORBERT BOLZ | 24 |
TECHNOLOGY KARLHEINZ BARCK | 39 |
Copyright | |
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Mapping Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Digital Age Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht No preview available - 2003 |
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actor aesthetic already appearance artistic Artwork essay audience aura auratic authenticity become Benjamin body called camera century claim close collective communication completely concept concerned continuity copy critical cult cultural described direct distance distinction effect emerge example existence experience fact film function gaze give hand human idea important individual kind least living longer look loss masses material means mechanical medium mode movie nature never Note object observation original painting perception performance person photography play political position possible practice precisely present printing problem production question reading reality recording reference relation representation represents reproduction ritual seems sense side simply situation social society speak specific status suggests symbolic technical technical reproduction theory thing thinking thought tion tradition transformation turn unique writing