Despite its relative brevity, Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” continues to inspire significant scholarly attention as a major work in the history of modern aesthetic and political criticism. The essay is credited with developing an insightful interpretation of the role technological reproduction plays in shaping aesthetic experience; more specifically, Benjamin catalogues the significant effects of film and photography on the decline of autonomous aesthetic experience. After fleeing the Nazi government in 1933, Benjamin moved to Paris, from where he published the first edition of “Work of Art” in 1936 (Brodersen XV). This publication appeared in French translation under the direction of Raymond Aron in volume 5, no. 1 of the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. Benjamin subsequently rewrote the essay and after editorial work by Theodore and Margarethe Adorno it was posthumously published in its commonly recognized form in his Schriften of 1955 (Wolin 183-4).
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Introduction and Historical Information
Background
Summary - I
Summary - II
Summary - III
Analysis - I
Analysis - II
Walter Benjamin and Important Artists and Artworks
- What is meant by 'Aura'?
- What is exhibition value?
- How is art being used as a tool of manipulation?
- What are the benefits of modern art form?
- What does Benjamin mean by the aura of an artwork?
- What does mechanical reproduction mean?
- What is the main point of Walter Benjamin's article?
- What is the difference between manual and mechanical or technical reproduction of art How is the original work distinguished from a reproduction?
- What's the importance of the mechanical reproducibility of the art?
- Is Aura a word?
- Does art reproduction have value?
- What is technological reproduction?
- What is definition of art?
- Can art be mechanically reproduced?
- How does the idea of the aura relate to perception?
- When did Walter die?
- What is an original work of art?
- Can the visual arts preserve memories?
- What did Walter Benjamin do?