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

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THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF IITS TEe H N 0 LOG I CAL RE If> ROD U C I B IL I TY

walter benjamin THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF ITS

AND OTHER WRITINGS ON MEDIA

TECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCIBILITY AND OTHER WRITINGS ON MEDIA Edited by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin Translated by Edmund Jephcott, Rodney Livingstone, Howard Eiland, and Others

Benjamin's famous "Work of Art" essay sets out his boldest thoughts-on media and on culture in gen­ eral-in their most highly developed form, while retaining an edge that gets under the skin of every­ one 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 Benjamin'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 dar­ ing, of the four versions of the "Work of Art" essay­ the one that addresses the utopian developments of the modern media. The collection tracks Ben­ jamin'S observations on the media as they are revealed in essays on the production and recep­ tion of art; on film, radio, and photography; and on the modern

transformations of literature and

painting. The volume contains some of Benjamin's best-known work

alongside fascinating, little­

known essays-some appearing for the first time in English. In the context of his passionate engage­ ment with questions of aesthetics, the scope of

walter benjamin

Benjamin's media theory can be fully appreciated.

-rhe Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media

-,he Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media

WALTER B ENJAMIN

EDITED Michael W. Jennings,

BY

Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin

TRANSLATED Edmund

]ephcott,

BY

R odne y Livingstone, Howard Eiland, and

Others

THE BELKNAP PRESS OF

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England 2008

Copyright © 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All right s rese rved Printed in t he United States of America Additional copyright notices appear on pages 425-426, whic h

constitute an extension of the copyright page. Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940. [Kuostwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischeo Reproduzierbarkeit. English] The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility,

and other writings on media / Walter Benjamin; edited by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid

Doherty

,

and Thomas Y. Levin;

translated by Edmund Jephcott ... [et al.].-lst ed.

p.

cm.

Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-674-02445-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Art and s ocie ty.

2. Photography of art.

knowledge-Mass media.

6.

Benja mi n

I. Jennings, Michael William.

,

II.

3. Mass media -P hilosophy.

5. Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940-

4. Arts, M odern-20th century-Philosophy.

Walter, 1892-1940-Translations i nt o English.

Doherty

,

IV. Jephcott, Edmund.

Brigid.

III. Levin, Thomas Y.

V. Title.

N72.S6B413 2008 302.23-de22

2008004494

CONTENTS

A

Note on the Texts

IX

1

Editors'Introduction

I. The Production, R eproduction] and R eception of the Work of Art 1. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Second Version

19

2. T heory of Distraction

56

3. To the Planetarium

58

4. Garlanded Entrance

60

5. The Rigorous Study of Art

67

6. Imperial Panorama

75

7. The Telephone

77

8.

79

The Author as Producer

9. Paris, the Cap ital of the Nineteenth Century

96

10. Eduard Fuchs, Collector and Historian

116

11. Review of Sternberger's Panorama

158

II. Script, Image, Script-Image 12. Attested Auditor of Books

171

13. These Surfaces for Rent 14. The Antinomies of Allegorical Exegesis

175

173

15. The Ruin

180

16. Dismemberment of Language

187

17. Graphology Old and New

192

III. Painting and Graphics 18. P a inting and the Graphic Arts

219

19. On Painting, or Sign and Mark

221

20. A Glimpse into the World of Children's Books

226

21. Dream Kitsch

236

v

vi

CONTENTS

22. Moonlit Nights on the Rue La Bo etie

240

23. Chambermaids' Rom ances of the Past Cen tur y

243

24. Antoine Wiertz: Thou ghts and Visions of a Severed Hea d

249

25. Some Remarks on Folk Art

254

26. Chinese Paintings at the Bibliotheque Na tio n a le

257

IV. Photography 27. News about Flowers

271

28. Little History of Photography

274

29. Letter from Paris (2): Painting and Photography

299

30. Review of Freund's Photographie en France au dix-neuvieme 312

s�de

V. Film 31. On the Present Situ ation of Russian Film

323

32. Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz

328

33. Chaplin

333

34. Chaplin in Retrospect

335

35. M icke y Mouse

338

36. The Formula in Which the Dial ectical Structure of Film Finds

Expression

340

VI. The Publishing Industry and Radio 37. Journa lism

353

38. A Critique of the Pu blishing Industry

355

39. The Newspaper

359

40. Karl Kraus

361

41. Reflections on Radio

391

42. Theater and Radio

393

43. Conversa tion with Ernst Schoen

397

44. Two Types of Popularity: Fundamental Reflections on a Radio

Play

403

45. On the Minute

407

Index

411

ILLUSTRATIONS

Paul Klee, Abstract Watercolor Max Ernst, fro ntispiec e to Paul Eluard, Repetitions

196 199

Walter Benj ami n , "A Glimpse in to the World of Chi l d re n's Books," page from Die literarische Welt

203

Walter Benjamin, "Chambermaids' Romances o f t he Pas t

Century," page from Das illustrierte Blatt

207

Ant o ine J oseph Wiertz, Thoughts and Visions of a Severed

l-Iead

210

Wang Yuanqi, Landscape in the Styles of Ni Zan and Huang

Gongwang Illustration from Aesop's Fables� second e dition Moral sa yi ngs from the book by Jesus Sirach

212 228 229

I ll ustrat i on fr o m Jo hann Peter Lyser, The Book of Tales for

Daughters and Sons of the Educated Classes Cover of The Magical Red Umbrella

Illustration fro m Adelmar von Perlstein

230 232 244

Frontispiece to Lady Lucie Guilford, the Princess of Vengeance,

Known as the Hyena of Paris Illustration from O. G. Derwicz, Antonetta Czerna Ill us trat ion de p i cti n g the notorious B lack Knight David Octavius Hill, Newhaven Fishwife (p hoto ) Karl Dauthendey, Karl Dauthendey with His Fiancee (photo) Anonymo us, The Philosopher Schelling (photo) David Octavius Hill, Robert Bryson (photo) August Sander, Pastry Cook ( ph oto) Augus t Sander, Parliamentary Representative (photo) Ge rmain e K ru l l , Display Window (photo) Germaine Kr ull , Storefront (photo)

245 246 247 2 77 278 280 284 288 289 291 29 2

A NOTE ON THE TEXTS

The following editions of works by Walter Benjamin are referred to throughout this volume: Gesammelte Schriften, 7 vols., with supplements, ed. Rolf Tiedemann, Hermann Schweppenhiiuser, et a1. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1972-1989). Selected Writings, 4 vols., ed. Michael W. Jennings et a1. (Cam­ bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996-2003).

The Arcades

Project, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin

(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999).

The texts included in t hi s volume are for the most part drawn from the four volumes of Benjamin's Selected Writings; we have modified a few of the translations published t here in the course of our work on the section introductions.

The editors of the present volume are grateful not just to Benjamin's accomplished translators, but in particular to Howard Eiland for the ed­ iting work that went into the

Selected

Writings. OUf research assistants

Annie BOllrnellf and Ingrid Christian have made invaluable contributions to the textual apparatus, and Charles Butcosk and Lisa Lee provided ex­ pert help with the acquisition of materials for the illustrations.

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

EDITORS'

INTRODUCTION

Although Wal ter Benjamin had written short texts on painting and the graphic arts d u r i ng his student years, it was not until the 1920s that he became intensely engaged with a broad range of modern media . These in� eluded new technologies that produced changes i n, and

as virtual

or actual prostheses for, human perception; instruments of m ass commu­ nication s uch as the newspaper a nd the radio; new techniques of display related to urban commodity capitalism; and artistic media such as paint­ ing, photograp hy, and film. Born in Berlin in 1892, Benjamin had grown up in a city deeply marked by the rampant growth of German industry in the l ast quarter

of the nineteenth c entury. Modern technologies were pervasive in the German capital-arguably more so there than in any other European metrop olis of the era. Germany had been united as a nation only in 1871 , and the period that immediately followed (known in German as

the

Grunderjahre,

o r foundational years) was characterized by a remark­

able economic boom that reshaped the face of Berlin . The early years of Benjamin's career a s a writer) which began while he was s till in high school, were given over not to an exploration of the experience of the modern city, but to a reevaluation of the philosophy and l iterature of German Romanticism and to the development of a theory of criticism rooted in that very Romanticism . In s tudies of Friedrich Schlegel's criti­ cism, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's prose) and Baroque mourning plays, Benjamin developed a highly original theory of l itera ture based on concepts and practices derived from the works themselves. The rhyt lllTIs of Benja min's practice and theory of criticism in the years 1912-1924 interweave two movements. On the one hand, his criticism calls for the demolition or demystification of the unified, auton­ Dlnous work of art. In a typically striking formulation, Be njamin calls this process of demolition or demystification the "mortification of the work";' scholars today, using a term from a seminal 1 918 speech by the German sociologist Max Weber) might sp e ak of its "disenchantment. "2

1

2

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

Benjaminian criticism a ttempts to reduce the seemingly coherent, inte­ gral l y meaningful work to the status of "ruin," "torso)" or "mask)" to name but a few key figures of his criticism. On the o ther hand, his theory also s trives for a productive mom ent: the isola tion and redemption of shards of an "immanent state of perfection" that had been shattered and denatured-made meaningless-in the cours e of history.3 In an impor­ tant essay o n Goethe's novel Elective Affinities, Benjamin defines the o b­ ject of c riticism as the discovery of the "truth content" of the worle of art. The dense intertwining of brilliant immanent criticism a nd broa d-gauged cultural theory in these works has e ns ured the m a special status in the history of literary theo ry. In the course of the 1920s, Benjamin turned his gaze from the German literary and philoso phical tradition to a series of problems in contem­ porary cu lwre. A key stage in this process wa s his involvement with art­ ists of the European and Soviet avant-gardes who had ga thered in Berli n i n the early part o f the decade. Crucially, this involveme nt with avant­ garde artists) architects, and filmmakers overlap ped with Benjamin)s brief affiliation with the university in Frankfurt

as

he unsuccessfully at­

tempted to have his study of the Baroque mourning play accepted as a I-Iabilitationsschrift th at would qualify him for a teaching position in a

German university. Also during this period, in 1923 he was forming friend ships with the architect, c ul tural critic, and film theorist Siegfr i e d Kracauer (1889-1966), t h e philosopher Theodor Ad orno ( 1903-1969), and the chemist Gretel Karplus (1902-1993, l ater Gretel Adorno); and in 1924 he began a l ong relationship with the Latvian j ournalist and theater director Asja Lacis (1891-1979), who encouraged Benjamin to und ertake a serious study of Marxism a n d to whom his epochal 1928 book One- Way Street was d edicated. In la te 1922 and early 1923 a new gro up of i nternational avant-garde artists came together in Berlin and launched the publicati on of a journal called G� an ab breviation of the German word Gestaltung� m eaning "forma tion" or "constructi o n . )' The artists of the " G-group" inc l uded a number of figures who would go o n to shape important aspects of twentieth-century culture: the archi­ tect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), the painter and photogra­ pher Laszl o Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), the intern ationa l constructivi st El Lissitzky ( 1890-1941), and the former Dadaists Raoul Hausmann

(1886-1971) and Hans Richter (1888-1976), the latter the group's dom­ i nant personality and the driving force behind the journ al. Benjamin, along with his wife, the journalist Dora Sophie Pollak (1890-1964)) a nd his friend Ernst Schoen (1894-1960), a composer and m usic theorist

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

3

who would go on to direct o ne o f Germany's na tional radio stations , all began to move at the

of this community. The group a s a whole

focus ed on the possibilities tha t new technologies and industrial prac­ tices were o p en i ng up for cul tural production, and B enjamin took p art in the debates that were regularly held in a rtists' ateliers across Berlin. For Benjamin, Moholy-Nagy's theorization of the variously reciprocal relationships among technological change, the production of new med i a forms, a nd the development of the human sensori u m wa s p a rticularl y im­ p ortant. Many o f the writings included in this volume, foremost among them Ben j a min's magisterial essay "The

Work of Art in the Age of Its

Technological Reproduci bllity," constitu te often radical explorations and theoretical extensions

of the reconsiderations of relationship s among

technology, media , and the huma n sensory apparatus -e xplora tions that emerged

central to the contributions o f the G-group and indeed to

Germ a n culture a t large, especially in the con text of the economic s tu bili­ zation tha t brought a n end to the period of inflation and hyperinflation of the earlier 1920s. By now, it sho uld be clear that we are using the terms "med i a" and " medium" in a bro ad ly inclusive manner. A central aspect of Benj amin's work is the a ttempt to ret hink the complex processes thro ugh which our sensory and cognitive appara tuses engage the world around us. In his writings on Romanticism, Benj amin had a lready offered a highly o rigi­ nal reconceptualization of relationships among p ersons, works of art, and the l arger world. Benjamin's early theoretical emphasis, developed largely in relation to the history of German litera ture and philosophy, broadened and intensified as he turned to the consideration of works of a rt produced by means of new technologies, a nd indeed to the devices and app urtenances of those technologies themselves . Virtua lly every

es­

say in this vol um e examines some aspect of the manner in which individ­ uaJ works, genres, media, or technological apparatuses mediate the com­ plex p rocesses by which we perceive, a ct upon, and function within that world. This volume, then, goes beyond consideration s of modern media such as the newspaper and radio, artistic media s uch as painti ng, photog­ raphy, and film, a nd the techniques of display and a dvertisement that have had such a profound effect on h u m a n consciousness and the n a ture of human embodiment under the conditions of modernity. The texts as­ sembled here also explore individual devices and entities such as the still camera a nd movie camera , the vari ous forms of the panora ma, engineer­ ing d iagrams, the teleph o ne, a nd such architectural forms as the train sta­ ti on, u nderground sewer systems, and, crucia lly, the arc a de.

4

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

Benjamin's work in this field in the 19205 is as tonishing for its range and depth . We should remember that there was n o general theory of me­ dia on which Benjamin could build-only theoretical meditations on older individual forms such as painting and photography, or local re­ flections on new forms such as radio, film, and the illustrated press. Partly as a professional strategy (he sought in this period to establish himself as a j ournalist and indeed as a leading critic of culture) , partly a s a practical matter ( he saw in radio a potentially l ucrative outlet for his writings), but ma i n ly driven by new a esthetic and political commit­ ments, Benjamin aimed to establish himself as a principal commentator on new literary directions and new media forms then emerging in Ger­ many, France, and the Soviet Union. In the course of the 1920s, then, Benjamin increasingly combined criticism of specific media forms with an effort to construct a more com­ prehensive theory of media-much as he had done in the case of litera­ ture and philosophy up until 1924. Yet if 1924 represents a watershed year in Benj amin's intellectual life, the year 1933 marks a traumatic rupture in his personal life. Although the signs of Hitler's accession to power in Germany had been impossible to i gnore since 1932, the burning of the Reichstag on February 27, 1933, made it clear to even the most stubbornly hopeful German intell ectuals o n the political left that their native l and would no longer tolerate them or their ideas. Benjamin, as a German Jew, was under no illusions regarding the implications not just for his work, but for his very l ife. A number of his closest friends and colleagues, including Bertolt Brecht (1 898-1956) , Erns t Bloch (18851977), and Siegfried Kraca uer opted immediately to go into self-imposed exile; Benjamin himself left B erlin for Paris in lnid-March. He would spend the remainder of the decade, and indeed the rest of his life, moving between Paris and a series of temporary refuges that i ncluded Brecht's house in Skovsbostrand, Denmark, his former wife's pensione in San Remo, Italy, and, a favored place, the Spanish island of lbiza. The impact of exile on Benjamin's thought in general-and o n his writings on med i a in particular-was pervasive a n d fundamen tal. The famous remarks o n the relationship between aesthetics a n d politics with which "The Work o f Art i n the Age o f Its Technological Reproducibility" concludes make plain the political urgency of Benj amin's attempt to develop something l i ke a " media theory" in the 1930s. If fascism could aestheticize politics and even Wat; communism, Benjamin asserted, was bound to respond by politicizing art. Tellingly, however, the politicized theory of media Benjamin devel-

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

5

op ed in the c o urs e of the 1930s did not de velo p exc lus ively o ut of a n eng agem ent wi th c onteln porary media forms. W ith increasing i ntensity B enjamin' s thoughts tu rned instead to hi s tor y: to the p e r i o d of the em er­ gence of urban, and specifi cally m etrop o l i t an , commod ity c ap italism. For B enj amin, th e con s tr ll ctio n of

a

mass ive sociocul tu ral h istory of P aris i n

the year s after 1 850 w as n oth i ng less than a stu dy of the emergence of modernity a s su ch . This project bore th e w ork ing title" Arcades P roj ect"

and, had Benjam in been a bl e to com pl e te it, might fi nally hav e been " P a ri s , C ap i tal of the Nineteenth Ce ntury." The p roj ec t took i ts work ing title from the proliferation of mercantile gallerie s, or arc ades (in Ge r ma n, Passagen) in mid-nineteent h-centu ry P a ris. "Th es e arca des, a n e w i nvent io n of indus t rial luxury, are gl a ss -ro o fed, ma rble-p aneled c or­ r id ors extendi ng t h r o ugh whole bl ock s of b u ildi n gs, whose owners h av e c al le d

j oined together for such en terpr ises. L in i ng both si de s o f th ese corrido rs , which get the ir lig ht from above, ar e the most elegant shop s, so tha t the passage is a c ity, a w orld in mi niatur e . "4 Benj amin focll s es o n these s truc­ tures as the organ iz in g m etap hor for his s tudy for a n u mber of reasons: th ey a r e a h istoric ally sp ecifi c ar tifact of the p er io d in q uestion , a pa rticu­ la rly concen trated figure for the public pr esence and p artic ul ar v isual c ha ract er of nineteenth-ce ntury commo dity c ap it a l is m ; and t he arcades were themselv es a preeminent site of, a nd app a rat u s for, the o rganiza tio n

o f vast realms o f p ercept io n f o r th e den izen s o f the modern me trop o li s. Th e organ iz ation a nd reconfi guration of h uman p er cept ion would i n d ee d ha ve emer ged as a cent ral th eme of the great wor k tha t B enj am in never fi ni s he d. The materials fr o m t he Ar cades Pro je ct that did fi nd their way into fi nished works, mos t prominently a series of es says on the Fr ench poet Charl es B a udelai re

(1821-1 867),

incl uded innovative rec onsider­

a ti ons of k ey m odernis t problems: the r ol e of the urban crowd as a n

optical devic e f or the s tr ol l ing flcmeur; th e signifi cance of actual op t ic a l devices suc h as p a nor ama s , p eep show s, and magic l anterns i n the habit­ u a ti on of c i ty d we llers to t h e n ew conditions of m etr op ol i tan exp eri­ ence; and esp eciall y the mod ern practice s of d i s pl ay and a dverti si ng that emerged in P a ris and would come to shape the percep tion o f the wo rld in su ch

a

p e rv asi ve ma nne r.

Benj a mi n' s interest i n this er a, then, is a nything b ut antiquari an. He wa s convinced of a pr of ound synchronicity between the dramatic changes tha t took p l ace i n E u rope arou nd 1850 a n d the co n vu l s iv e p ol i tic a l up­ h eava ls marking t he Europ e in and a boll t which he was w riting during

th e 19305. A t t he center of the theor y of h i story B enj ami n d ev elop ed as p ar t of th e Arcade s Project stands the notion that cer tain his torical mo-

6

EDIT O R S' I N T R O D U C TI O N

ments and forms become legible only at

a

l ater moment-one that corre­

sponds to them and o nly to them. Certain fo rm s analy ze d in the Arcades Project ( for example , t he panoramas, and the " panoramic" l iterature that a rose in the i r wake) are moment s in the p rehistory of a later form such as film. "} ha ve fou nd," Benja m in wrote to Gretel Karpl us in 1935, "tha t

a

spe ct of the art of the nineteenth century whic h only 'n ow' be­

comes r ecogniz able-i t had not been so before and it will never be s o again. "5 It seems, then, tha t Benj amin hoped that readers of his essay on the work of art would become aware not only of the political and epis te m o logical p otentia litie s o f forms of art made possible by me an s

of n ew technologies of product ion and reproduct i o n, but als o of their co r resp onde n ce to the artifacts and modes o f perception inha biti ng other historical moments, and thus of the par tic u lar-a nd particularly endan­ gered-character of o ur own embeddedness in hi s tory. The essays in­ cluded in this volume are thus not merely indispensa ble cont r i b ut i ons to tile theo ry of v arious forms of media that emerged in Benjamin's lifetime; they are also invested with Benjamin's sense that those forms bore within them a recognition of the "fate of art in the n ineteenth century because it is contained i n the ti ck i ng of

a

c lockwo rk whose hourly chiming has first

penetr a ted into our ears ."6 In what foHows, we have eschewed the chronological organization of

Be nja mi n 's

Selected Writings a s well as the gener i c o rder ing

of the Ger­

man edi ti on of his collected works, opting instead to group the ess ays un­ der what we hop e are suggestive co nceptu al ru brics. The first s ection, "The Production, Reproduction, and Reception of the Work of Art,

n

in­

c l u des s ome of Benj amin's best-known essays on the nat ur e and status of the work of art. These texts po s e provocative q ue s ti ons r ega rd i ng the place of art in mod er n society, the perceptu a l and more broadly cognitive co nd itio ns under which art is prod uced, and the i mpl ications of the re­ cep tion of art for human age ncy, i ndeed fo r the experiences of the human subject as such. The se cti o n that follows , " S cript , Image, Scrip t�I mag e," explores relationships between the graphic element of all wri ting and modern te c hno l o gies of re presentation as they i n teract with human sen­ sory and cognitiv e capacities. These ess ays are united in th e i r documenta­

tion of B enjamin 's conviction tha t mea ning takes shape and re si des in the world of urban commodity c a p i tal is m not o n ly in dis c n rsi v e , systematic form, b u t per h ap s even more sign ificantl y in fl ashes that leap out from the graphic forms of writin g's "new ecce nt ri c figurativeness"7 as that wri t ing was bodied forth in props on

a

stag e , an engineeri n g d iagr a m, or

an a d v er ti seme nt . These first two sections are intended to serve as the in­

troduction to broad issues that cut a c ros s medi a, genres, and indi vid u al

EDITORS'INTRODUCTI ON

7

works. T he sections that follow-on painting and gr a p hics , p hotogr a phy, film, and the publishing industry and radio-offer concentrated in­ troductions to Benj a mi n 's most i mportant essays o n these forms. A word is certainly in order reg arding the principle of inclusion that

­

informed this selection of Benjamin's essays on modern media. In an

importan t sense, Benjamin's work does not lend itself to anthologization,

seg men tat i on, or conceptual ordering. In a marvelous 1 925 essay on N aple s that he coauthored wi th Asja Lacis, Benjamin emphasized the po­ rosity of the city's architecture as a figure for a more gen e ral porosity in the conduct of life: "Building and action interpenetrate in the court­ yards, arcades, and s ta i rw a ys . In e very thi ng is preserved the p o tential of play [Spielraum] that would make it possible to become a site [Schauplatzl of new, unforeseen constellations. The de fini tiv e, the char­ acteristic are avoided. No situation appears just as it is, intended as such forever; no form asserts its own 'just so, and not otherwise.",g The generic and conceptual "walls" between the various aspects of Ben­ jamin's p rod u c tion are, if a ny thi ng , even more porous than those of the Naples courtyard. The m ed itation s o n perce p t i on included in this volume threate n to bleed into a number of essays on the concept of experience written in the ea rl y 1930s, essays such as "Experience and Poverty";9 re­ flections on graphicness and display are imbricated in the great series of essays o n the theory of lang uage ; the theorization of a politics of media suggests relays to many essays on pol i t i cs and culture; and, as we have suggested above, nearly everything Benjamin wrote after 1934 is gener­ ated by or related to the great torso of the Arcades Project. Had we pur­ sued each of these filiations and constellations, we would soon have had a multivolume edition rather than a si ng le volume intended for the general reader and use. The mos t vexing questions surrounding any principle of selection spring from the status of the Arcades Project. Debates on the textual status of th i s body of m aterial, which remained unfinished and unpub­ lished d u r i ng Benjamin's lifetime] continue to rage. To what extent is the volume that wa s pu blished as Das Passagen- Werk in Germany and The Arcades Project in the United States a finished text? According to some of Benjamin's editors, this material is simply a compilation of re­ se arch notes, citations, and more or less polished reflections on t hose notes and citations: a vast, endlessly fascinating quarry. According to others, extensive sections of the volu me are conceptually ordered, rhetor­ ically finished arguments on specific aspects of nineteenth-century Pari­ sian life and the modernity it epitomized. W ith a very few exceptions, we have selected o n ly finished essays for tllis volume, and have reluctantly

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

8

refra ined from including a ny of the fascinating series of fragments that m ake u p the Arcade s P roject. We urge the re ade r, though, to foll o w the v arious comp lexes o f i deas sk etche d he re i nto th e l a byr inth o f th e ar­

c ades, a nd to pur sue Be njam i n's thoughts on film, photograph y, r adio, ne wsp aper s , the grap hic art s, paint ing, and a rchitecture in that less or­ d ered but pe rhaps even mor e s uggesti ve text.

Notes See Walter Benjamin, "The Ruin," Chapter 15 in this volume. Max Weber, "Science as a Vocation," in From Max We b er: Essays in Sociol­ ogy, ed. H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), p. 155. 3. Walter Benjamin, "The Life of Students," in Se lected Writings, Volume 1: 1913-1926 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 37. Benjamin's understanding of these scattered shards may be derived from the Jewish mystical concept 0f "Tikkun," or the shattering of th e vessels. On Benjamin's relat ionsh i p to Jewish messianism, see especially Anson Rabinbach, "Between Enlightenment and Apocalypse: Benjamin, Bloch and Modern German Jewish .Messianism�" New German Cr itiqu e, 34 (Win­ ter 1985); and Irving Wohlfarth, "On the Messianic Structure of Walter Benjamin's Last Reflections,'� Glyph, 3 (1978). On the conception of Tikkun itself, see Gcrshom Scholem, Major Trends in Je w ish Mysticism (New York: Schockel1, 1954L pp. 245-248. Much of what Benjamin knew of Jewish messianism was derived from conversations with his close friend Scholem, who rediscovered the Kabbalah for modern scholarship. 4. \X'alter Benjamin, The A r cad es Project, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 3"1. Benjamin quotes here, in the first fragment of The Arcades Project, from the Guide illustre de Paris (1852) and uses the French term passage. The quota­ tion also appears on the first page of the 1935 expose of the project, "Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (Arcades Project, p. 3). 5. Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Briefe, vol. 5 (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1999), p. 1 7l . 6 . The Correspondence o f Wa l te r Benjamin, trans. Manfred R . Jacobson and Evelyn M. Jacobson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 509 (translation modified). 7. Walter Benjamin, "One-Way Street," in Selected Writings. vol. 1, p. 456. 8. Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis, "Naples," in Selected Writings, vol. 1, p. 416 (translation modified). 9. See Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 2: 1927-1934 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), pp. 731-736. 1.

2.

I THE PRODUCTION

I

REPRODUCTIONJ AND

RECEPTION OF THE WORK OF ART

"J ust as the ent i re m ode of ex istence of human collecti v e s c hanges over long l11st orical peri od s, so too d oes th eir m ode o f p ercep tion." [n th i s t ine from sect ion IV of t he f am ou s essay "T he W ork of Art in the Age of I ts Technologic al R eproduc ibility," written in e xi le in Pa ris in t he mid-1930s, B e n j am in defin es progr am matica lly the fi el d in w hich his work on m o d ­ e r n media move s.1 W it hin t hat fi eld-of historical change i n the h um an s ensorium-B en j amin concentra tes on two q uestions: the capacity of t he artw ork t o en code i n form ati on a bou t its historical per iod ( and, in so doing, po ten ti ally to rev eal to reader s and viewers oth erw is e inapprehen­ sible aspects of the nature of their own era},2 and the way in w hich mod­ ern media-as g enres and as individual work s-affect t he c h anging hu­ questions thr ou gh

man s en sor y

a

brief introduction to two writers, A lo is Ri egl a nd Lasz lo M. o holy-Nagy, w hose w ork w a s in consta n t d ia log ue wi th B enj amin' s . Al oi s Ri egl was perhaps t he most import an t theoretician o f a r t h is­ tory in Eu rope in the period ar ou nd 1900; his work exer ted

a

deci s i v e i n­

fl uence on su b s equ ent generations of ar t histori ans, n o ta bl y Wilh elm W o rr inger, Er win P anofsk y, the sch ol ars associ ated with t he W ar burg In­ s titut e, and t he " second V iennese scho ol" whi ch Be nj aln in discuss e s in his essay "T he R igo rous S tudy of A r t" (Chapter 5 in th is volume). Al­ thou gh Rie gl' s rethi nk ing of the historiography of ar t pr o vi de d i mp ortant impet uses t o B enj am in,3 his theory of the lJroduction and recel)tion of ar t under ch anging historical conditi ons w a s equal ly important- and it is

9

10

P R O D U C T I O N , R E P R O D UCT I O N , A N D R E C E PT I O N

this aspect of Riegl's work t h a t has the m o s t im portant implications for a theory of medi a . Riegl strove, o ver the course o f h i s career, to dev e lop a model of his­ torical causality that could h elp e x pla in changes in style. At the heart of a complex answer to this question is his theory of the KUl1stwollen-the manner in which a specific c u l t u re seeks to g i ve form, color, and line to its art. With the concept o f "artistic volition," Riegl so u ght to show how art tracked maj or s hifts in the s tructure and attitudes of collectives: societies, races, ethnic groups, and so

011.

Kunstwollen is the artistic projection of a

collective intentio n. "All human vol ition," Riegl wrote in his most influ­ e nti a l work, Late Roman Art

"

i s directed towa rd the satisfac­

r ela t io nsh i p to the world... . The formative Kunstwollen regulates the rela tion of ma n to things as they appear to the

tory s haping of [man's]

s enses: the manner in which man wishes to see eac h thing shaped or col­ o red thereby comes to expression . . . . Man is, however, not solely

a

being

who takes in imp ressions thro u gh the senses-he is not only passi ve-but a desiring-that is, an active-being, who will i nterpret the world as it reveals itsel f to his desire (which changes according to race, place, an d time). n4 Works of art-or rat he r details within the work of a rt-are thus the clearest source of a very p a r t i c ul ar kind of historical information.

They encode not just the character of the artisti c prod u ctio n of the age , but the character of parallel features of the society: its religio n , philoso­ phy, ethical s tructure, and institutions. When, in an essay such as "Th e Author as Producer,

l)

Benj amin a ddresses t h e question o f the political

uses of art , he does so not so much from a founda tion in Marxist theory as from his reading of Riegl. He can thus claim that the "po litical ten­ dency " of a work of art d epends not so much on its political tendentious­ ness as u pon its literary quality-that is , upon i ts form. Because only its literary quality can reveal it s position in

"

the relations of p rod uction of

its time." In many of the essays included in this volume, we see Benjamin d evelo ping historical a nd p o li tic a l interpretation on the ba sis of aesthetic commentary. We witness how Benjamin teases out the structure and s ig­ nificance of a historical era on the bas is of the relationship esta blished between the s tylistic d etail and the Kunstwollen. It is j ust this capacity to ex trapol a te from the ind ivid ual, concrete d etail to the culture at large that is the mark of the researcher able "to trace the curve of the heart­ beat [of a historical era] as the line of its form s . The only such ma ster lIas been Ri egl, . . . in whom the d e ep i n sight into the material wil l

[Wollen] o f an

era expresses i tse lf conceptua lly as t h e analysis of i ts for­

mal canon." 5 Focused less on the direct p olitical efficacy of a work, and

P R O D U C T I O N , R E P R ODU C T I O N , A N D R E C E P TI O N

11

not a t all on its agita tional p oten t ial , Benj amin's inte rest in all wo rk s of art remains r ooted in what they can reveal to us a b out the r e lationshi p between the historical e ra under study a nd o u r own historical position. Just as works of art e xp re ss collective p o s itio ns (o ften in h i ghly medi­ ated form ) , t hey a l so , for Benj amin, p l ay an i m p o r t a n t role in s ha p i n g the

human sensory cap a c it y. U n der ly i ng a l l o f Benj am in' s thought is the con­ viction that t he see m i ngl y most obvious things-who we are, the c harac­ ter of the phys i c a l environment in which we mo ve , a nd the cha ra c ter of the h i s t o r ic al mome nt i n which we live -are in fact denied to u s . The

wo rld in which we live in fact h a s , for us, t h e character of a n opt ica l me­ d ia d evice: his most frequent description of our world is in terms of "ph antasmagoria." O ri g i na l l y an

illus ionistic o p t i c a l

pp a ra t u s, in vo l v i ng shadows of moving figures p r o j ecte d past an audi­

a

ence and onto a wall or screen, p hant asm a g o r i a a s re define d by Benjamin

becomes a figur a l image of the world of urban commo d i ty ca p ital ism : an envi ro nm ent so sug ge st ively " real " that we move th r o u gh it as if it we re

given a nd natural, when in fact it is a soci o ec onomic construct. For Benjamin, the te r m "pha n ta sma go ria" ca p t u re s both the p owe r ful a nd the deep l y i llusory q u al i ty of this e nvironment, a chara cter i s t i c that has a

d e bil i t atin g effect u p on the human a b ility to come to rational d ecisi o n s­ and in fact to pe rce i ve a nd un de r st an d i ts own world. In 1922, in the essay " Production-Reproducti on , " Moholy-Nagy had p roposed a n ec e ssar y re la tionsh i p between technology, media , and the

devel o p men t of the hum an sensorium. He assigned the l ea d i ng role in this process to art p r oduced by means of new technolog ie s , wh ic h is " i n ­

strumenta l in this d e v e l o pm e nt . . . for art attempts t o c r ea te ne w r el a ­ tio ns h i p s between familiar and as yet unfamiliar d a t a , optical, acoustic, or whatever, and forces us to take it all in through our sens ory e q uip­

ment. "6 This essa y 's pr i n c i p le contribution to our u n de r s ta ndi n g of the r o le of new media lies in its distincti on between w h a t Moholy cal l s " re ­ pr od u cti o n " and "production." Reproduction is t h e mimetic r ep l i c a tion

of an extant exte r n a l re a li ty : this "reiteration of r e la t i on s h i ps th a t al­ re a d y exist" can h ave little effect on the develop ment of ne w p e r c e p tual capacities, since such practice mere ly re pr od u ce s r e l a ti o n sh ip s already acce ss ib le to th e senses. "Productio n ," howe ve r, names those types of art pra ct i c e s th a t e m p l o y te c h no l ogy to active ly create new rela tionships. For

Moholy, the automatism of the camera le ns is a cru ci a l p r osthe s i s , an ex­ tensio n of t h e ra nge a nd powe r of the h um an visual ap paratus tha t al one can re vea l to human cognition new relat i o n s h i p s between e le men ts of the p e rce p tual w orl d. Benjamin would later call these e lements ne w " ima ge -

PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION

12

worlds." W hat !vloholy is interested in here is n o t so m u c h the r epre s e n ­ tat ion of things as they are, n o t th e "true nature" of the modern world,

but instead a h a rne s s i n g of n ew media's p otentia l for c ognitiv e and per­

ceptual tra n s fo rmati on. Mo h o l y 's t heories on photogr ap hy as

a

te c hn o ­

logica l p r os th e s is are insepa r a bl e fro m h i s an thr o p o lo gy; th ey remain

rooted in

a

caU fo r

a

c o nti n u o us recas tin g of the hum an cognitive appa­

rat us and the val ues and behaviors that are based upon it. Many of the e s says in this v olume thus examine modern tec h n ological

apparatuses in terms

of the i r effects-both real and po t e n tia l-upo n the

human se n so ry c a pa c i ties . The earliest such analysis, in the s ectio n "T o the pJanetarium" from One- Way Street, makes th e pl anetari um a virtual

theatrum mundi: in the mod ern planetarillll1, with i ts " o ptica l connection to th e un i verse, " an cien t form s of commun ion with the cosmos ( d o m i ­ nated, in Benjamin's view, by Rausch or the ecsta tic trance) give way to n ew forms of hum an r elation to the universe. "In tec h n o lo g y a p hy sis is being o r g ani ze d th r o u gh which man kind's contact with the cosmos takes a

n ew and different for m . " From the planetarium, t hen-that c o nsum­

ma te fi gu r e of the t e chn o l o g i c al org a niza tion of perceptio n -t wo possi­

ble paths lead forward. One is the path of violence that leads, for the c o l­ l e cti ve , to exhibition value begins to drive bacl� cult value on all

(fOn ts . But cult value does not give way without resistance. It falls back

to a last entrenchment: the human countenance . It is no accident tha t the portrait is central to early photography. In the cult of remembrance of d ea d o r a bsent loved ones� the cult value of the image finds its last refuge. In the fleeting expression of a human face� the aura beckons from early photo graphs for the l ast time. This is what gives the m the i r melancholy and incomparable beauty. But as the h uman being withdraws from the photograp h ic image, exhibition value for the first time shows its superi­ ority to cult value. To have

this d evelopme nt its local ha bitati on

co nstitutes the unique significance of A tget, who, around 1 900, took 12

photographs o f

I t has j ustly b een said that h e

photo gra phed them l ike scenes of crimes . A crime scene, too, i s deserted; i t is photographed for the purpose of esta b lishing evidence . With Atget, p h o tographic record s begin t o be evidence in the historical trial [ProzessJ . This constitutes their hidden political significance. They demand a spe­ cific kind of reception . Free-flo ating contemplation is no l onger appropri­ ate to them. They unsettle the v iewer; he feels chal lenged to find a partic­ u l a r way to approach them. At the same time, illustrated m a ga zines begin to put up signposts for him-whether these arc right o r wrong is irrele­ vant. For the fi rst time , captions become o b ligatory. And it is clear tha t they have

a

character a l toge ther different fro m the ti tles of paintings . The

directives given by captions to those l o oking at images in i l l ustrated mag­ azi nes s o on become even more precise and comman d i ng in films, where the way each s ingle image is understo o d seems prescribed by the se­ quence of all the preceding images .

VI I I The Greeks had only two ways o f techno logical l y re prod ucing works o f art: casting and stamping. Bro nzes , terra cottas, and coins were the only a r tworks they could prod uce i n l arge numbers. A ll o thers were uniq ue and could not be technologica lly reprod uced . That is why they had to be made for all eternity. The state of their techno logy compelled the Greeks to produce eternal values in their art. To this they o we their p reeminent

28

P R O D U C T ION , R E P R O D U C T ION , A N D R E C E P T I O N

POSItlOll in art his tor y

-

the standard for s u bsequent generations. Un­

doubtedly, our positioll lies at the opposi te pole from that of the Greeks . Never before h a v e artworks been tec hnologically reprod ucible to such

a

degree and in sllch q u antities as today. Fi lm is the first art fo rm whose ar­ tistic ch aracter is entirely determined b y i ts reproducibility. It would be i dle to compare this fo r m in detail wi th

p oint such

Greek a r t . But on one precise

comparison would be reve ali n g. For film has given cru c i a l

a

i m p o r ta n c e to a quality of the artwork w hich woul d have been the last to find approval alllo ng the Greeks, or which they would have dismissed as m a r g i n a l This q ua l i ty i s its capacity for impro vement. The finished .

film is the exact anti thesis of a work created a t a s i n gl e stroke . It is assem­ bled from

a

very l a rge num ber of i mages and image sequences tha t offer

an array of choices to the editor; these images, moreover, can be i m­ proved in any desired way in the process le a d i ng from the in i tial take to the final Cll t. To produce A Woman of Paris, which is 3,000 me te rs long, C h a pl in shot 1 25 , 0 0 0 meters of film. 1 3 The film is therefore the artwork most capa b le of i11t!J1'ovement. And this capability is

linked

to its radical

renunciation of eternal value. Th is is c o rr o b o r ate d by the fact that for the

Greeks, whose a rt depended on the produc t ion of e ternal va l ues, the p in­ nacle of all the arts was the form least c a p a bl e of improvement-na mely

s c u l pt u re whose p ro ducts a re litera lly all of a piece. In the age of the ,

as­

sembled r.montierbarJ artw o rk , the decline of scul pture is inevitabl e .

IX The nineteenth c ent u ry d i spute over the relative artistic merits of pai nt­ -

ing and photography seems misguid ed and confused to day. 1 4 But this

does not d iminish its importance, and may ev e n underscore i t. The d is­ p u te was in fact a n e xp r e s s i o n of a world -historical upheaval whose true na ture was concealed from both p arties . Insofar as the age of t ec h n o l og i c a l r e pr o d uci b ili ty separa ted art from its basis in c u l t, all sem blance of art's a ut o n o m y d isappeared forever. But the resulting change in the func­ ­

tion o f art lay beyond the horizon of the nineteenth c e ntury. And even the twentieth , which sa w the d eve l o pm e n t of film, was slow to pe rc e ive it.

Th ough commenta tors had earlier expended much fruitless ingenu­ ity on th e question of whether ph o to graphy was an art-with out asking the more fu nda menta l question of whether th e inv enti o n of p h otography had n o t t ransfo rm e d the entire character of art film theorists quicldy adopted the s a me ill-considered stan dp o in t. B ut the di fficulti es which -

photography caused for traditional a es thetics were child's play compared

T H E W O R K O F A RT: S EC O N D V E R S I O N

29

to those pre s e nted by film. Hence til e o btLlse and h y p erbo li c cha racter of e a rl y film theory. Abe l Gance, for insta nce, compares film to hieroglyph s : "By

a

remarkable regression, we are transported b a c k t o the exp ressive

level of the Egyp tians

Pictorial language h as n ot matured, because our eyes a re not yet a da p te d to it. There is not yet enough respect, not enough cult, for what it expresses . " IS Or, in the words of Severin-Mars: "What other art h as been g r a n te d a dream . . . at once more poetic and mo re real ? S e en in this li ght film might rep r e s e n t an i ncompara ble means of expression, and only the noblest m inds s h o uld move with i n i ts atmo­ sphere , in the most perfect a n d m y s t e r iou s moments of t h eir l ives . " J 6 It is instructive to see how the desire to a n nex film to " art" im p e l s these theoreticians to a ttri b u te el ements of c ult to film-with a striking l a ck of discretion. Yet when these speculations were pu bli s he d, works like A Woman of Paris and The Gold R ush had alrea d y appea red . This did not deter Abel Gance from making the comparison w i t h hieroglyphs, wh ile S e v eri n M ars speaks of film a s one m i g h t spe a k o f pa intings by Fra A nge l i co. 17 It is r e v e alin g that even toda y especially reaction ary a uthors l oo k in the same direction for the s i g n ifi c a n ce of film-finding, if not a c ­ tually a sacred s ig n i fi ca n c e , then a t least a s uperna tural one. In co n n ec tion with Max Rei nh a r d t s film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Wedel co mm e n ts that it was undoubtedly the s te rile c o py i ng of the exter­ n a l w orl d with its streets, interi ors , railway stations, resta urants, a uto­ mobiles, and beaches�that had p revented film up to now from ascend­ ing to the re a lm o f art . " Film has not yet r e a lize d its tru e purpose, i ts real poss ibi lities . . . . These consist in its unique abil ity to use natural me a n s to give incomparably convincing e xpr es s i o n to the fairylike, the marvel­ ous, the supernatural. " I H .

.

.

.

,

-

­

'

-

x

To photograph a painting is one kin d of reproduction, b u t to photograph an action performed in a film studio is a nother. In the first case, wha t is r e p r o d u ce d is a w o rk of a rt, while the act o f p r o d u c i n g it is not. The cam­ e ra m a n 's performa nce with the l e ns no more creates an a rtwork tha n a conductor's with t he baton; a t most, it creates a n artistic performance. This is u n l ike the process in a film s tudio . Here, what is reproduced is n o t a n a rt w ork and the act of reproducing it is no more su c h a work than in the first case. The work of art is p r o d uce d only by mea ns of montage . A n d each individual compon ent o f this montage is a reproduction of a process w h i ch neither is a n artwork in n or gives rise to one throu gh ,

30

P R O DUCTIO N , R E PROD UCTI O N , A N D RECEPT I O N

p horography. What, th en, are these processes r e p roduc e d in film, since

th ey are cert a i n l y not works o f art? To answer this, we must s t a r t from the pec uliar natu re of the artistic performance of the film actor. He is di s t i ngu is h e d from the stage actor in that his pe rfo rm a nce i n i ts original form, from which the reprod uction is m a d e , is not carried ou t i n front o f a ra n do m l y composed audience but b efore a group of specialists-execu tive producer, di r ec t o r, cinematogra­ p h e r, sOllnd record ist, lighting designer, and so on-who are in a p os i ti on to intervene in h is performance at any time . Th is a s pect of filmma k i ng is h i g h l y s i gni fic a n t in so ci a l te rms . For the intervention in a perfor m a nce by a body of experts is also ch aracteris tic of sporting performances and, i n a w ider sense, of all test performances . Th e e n t i r e process of film pro­ duction is determined, in fa ct, by such intervention. As we know, many shots a re fi lmed i n a number of takes. A single cry fo r h elp, for example, can be recorded in several d i fferent version s . The editor then makes a se­ lection from these ; i n a s ens e , he esta blishes o ne of them as the record. An action p erformed in the film studio therefore differs from the correspond­ ing real action the way the com peti ti v e throwing of a discus in a s ports arena would differ from the throwing of the s a me discus fr0111 th e same spot i n the same direction in order t o k ill someon e . The first is a test per­ formance, while t h e second is not. The test performance of the film actor is, however, ent i rel y unique in ki n d . In what does this p erform an c e consist ? It co n sists in cr o s s i n g a certa in barrier which confines th e social va lue of test p e rfo rm a nc es with in n arrow l imits. I a m referr i ng now not to a performance in the world of sp o rts , but to a p erform a n ce p r od u c ed in a mech anized te st . In a se nse , the a th le t e is confronted only by natural tests . I-Ie me a s u r e s h imself against tasks s et by nature, n o t by eq uipment-apart from exceptional c a s es like Nur m i , who was s aid to r un against the c1ock . L9 Meanwhile the work process, especia l ly since it has been stand ardized b y the assem­ bl y li n e , d a i l y genera tes countless mechanized tests . These tests are p e rfo r m ed un awares, and who faiJ are excluded from the work p r oce s s . But th ey are also conducted open l y, in agencies for testing pro­ fessional a p ti tude. In both cases, t h e test s ubject fa c es the barrier men­ tioned above. These tests, unlike those in the world of sports, are i nc a p a b l e of being publ icly ex h i b i te d to the degree one W O ll ld d esire. And this is precisely where film comes into p l ay. Film makes test performances capable of be­ ing exhibited, by turning that ability itself into a test. The film acto r per­ forms not in fron t of an audience b l1 t in front of an a pp a ra t u s . The film

T H E W O R K O F A R T: S E C O N D V E R S I O N

31

d i re c t or o cc upi e s e x a c t l y the s a me p o s i t i on as the exa miner in an apti­ tude test. To pe rfo r m in th e glare of arc l a mps whi l e s i m u l ta n e o u s l y

meeting th e demands of t h e microphone is a test perfo rmance o f the high­ est o rd er. To a c co m p l i s h it is to p r ese r v e one's h u man ity in the face of th e a p p a r a tu s . Interest i n this p erformance is wi d e sp re a d . For the maj ority of city dwellers) through o ut t h e w o r k d a y in o ffic es a n d facto ries, h ave to re­ linq uish their h umanity i n the face of an apparatus. In the even ing these same masses fill the ci n em a s , to witness the film a c to r t a k i ng revenge on t h e ir beh a lf n o t only by asserting his h um an i ty (or wha t a ppea rs to the m as such) ag a in s t the a p p a r a t us , but b y p l aci ng tha t apparatus in the ser­ vice of his triumph.

XI In the c ase of film) the fac t that the actor repres ents someone else before

t h e a udience ma tters much less t han the fact that he r ep r e s e n t s himself before the apparatus. On e of the fi rs t to sense this transformation of the actor by t h e te s t p erfo rm a nce w a s Pirand e l l o . 20 Th a t his remarks on the s u bje ct in his n o ve l Sigil'a [Shootll are confined to the negative aspects of this ch a n g e , and to silent fil m only, does l ittle to dim i ni sh their rele­ v a n c e . For in this respect, the sound film c h a n ge d n o t hi n g essential . Wh a t matters is tha t the actor is p e rfo rm in g for a p i e c e of e q uipment-or, in the case of s o u nd fi l m, for two p ie c e s of equipment. " The film a ctor, " Pirand ello writes, as if e x i l e d . Exiled not o n l y from the s tage but from his own person. With a vague unease, he s e ns e s an i ne x plic a ble void, stemming from t h e fact t h at his body has lost its substance, th at he h a s been volatilized, str ipp ed of h i s reali ty, his li fe , his voice, the noises h e makes wh e n mov ing a b o ut , and has been turned into a m ute image that flickers for a m om e nt on the screen, t h e n vanishes into silence . . . . The little apparatus will p l a y with his shadow before the a udience, and he h imself m ust be content to play before th e apparatus . " 2 1 The situation can also be characterized as fo ll o w s : for t h e first time-and this is the ef­ fe ct of fi l m- th e human being is pl a c e d in a p o s i tio n where he must oper­ ate w i th h i s wh o l e li v i ng person, while forgoing its a ura . For the a u r a is b ound to his p r e se n c e in the here a nd now. There is no fa cs i m ile of t h e aura. The aura s ur r oundi ng Mac beth on the stage cannot b e d ivorced from the au ra which, for t h e l i v i n g spectators, s urrounds the actor who plays him. What di s t i n g u i s hes the s h o t in the film studio, however, is t h at the camera is s ub stit u te d for the audience. As a result, t h e aura surround­ i ng the actor is dispelled-and, witb it, the a u r a o f the figure h e p or tra ys .

32

P R O D U C T I O N . R E P ROD U C T I O N , A N D R E C E P T IO N

It is not surprising that it shoul d be

a

d ramatist such as Pirand e l l o

who , i n reflecting o n t h e special character of film acting, i n adverte n tly

touches on the crisis now affecting the theate r. Indeed , nothing contrasts more starkly with a work of art comp letely s u b j e c t to ( or, like film, founded in) tech n ological reprod uction th an a s tage play. Any thorough considera t ion will confirm this . Expert o bservers have l o n g recognized tha t, in film, " the best effects a re almost a l w ays a chieved b y ' a cti n g ' as

little as p oss i b l e . . . . The development, " a c co r d i ng to Rudolf Arnheim,

writing in 1 932, h as been toward " u si ng the actor as one of the ' props,' chosen for his typ icalness and . . . introduced i n the proper co n text . " 22 C l o s e l y bound up with t h is d evelopment is something else . The stage ac­ tor identifies himself with a role. The film actor very often is denied this opportunity. His perfo rmance is by n o me a n s a u nified whole, but is as­

se mbled from many ind ividu a l perfo rmances . Apart fro m in c i d e n t a l con­ cern s a bo u t s tud i o renta l, a vaila bility of other actors, scenery, and so on,

t h e re are el e menta ry necessi ties of the machi nery that s p l i t the a ctor's p erformance into a se ries of episodes capable of being assembled. In p ar­ ticula r, l ighti n g a nd its instal lation req u i re th e re p resentation of an a c­ t i o n-w hi ch o n the screen appears as a s w i ft , unified sequence-to be fil med in a s eri es of s e pa ra te takes, w hich may be spread o ver ho urs in the stud io . Not to mention the more obvious effects of montage . A l e a p from

a

window, for example, can be shot in the stud io as a leap fro m

a

scaffold, w hile the cnsuing fall may be fil med weeks later a t an outd o or

l oca t i o n . And fa r mo re p a r a doxi c a l c ases can easily be imagin e d . Let aSSllme that an actor is supposed to be startled by

a

us

knock at the doo r.

If his reaction is n o t s a tisfactory, the d irector can resort to an exped ient: he could h a v e

a

sho t fired without warning behind the actor's back on

some o ther occa sion when he ha p pe n s to b e in t h e s tudio . The actor's fri ghtene d

e

r ac

ti on at that moment could be recorded a nd then edited

i n to the film. Nothin g s h o ws

m

or e gr a p h i ca l l y tha t a rt has escaped the

realm of " beau tiful semblance, " whic h for so l ong was rega rd ed as the o n ly sphere i n which i t could thrive.:!.]

XI I The rejJresentation

of human

beings by means

of an

apparatus has made

possibLe a highly p roductive use of the h uman being 's self-alie11ation. The natu re of this use can be grasped through the fact that the film acto r's es­ trangement in the face of t h e ap p ar a t u s , r

as

Pi r a n de l l o d escri b es this expe­

i e n ce , is b a sically o f the same k ind as the estrangement felt before one's

T H E W O R K O F A R T: S E C O N D V E R S I O N

appearance

lErscheinung]

33

in a mirror-a favorite theme of the Roman­

tics. But now the mi rro r image

rBi/d]

h a s b ecome deta chable from the

person mirrored, a nd is transportable. And where is it transport ed ? To a s ite in front of the masses .24

Natura lly,

the screen actor never for a mo­

ment ceases to be aware of th i s . Whi l e he sta nds b efore the appa ratus, he knows that i n the end he is confronting the m asses . It is they who will control him. Those who are not visible, not present while he executes his per formance, are p recisely the o nes who w i l l control it. This invisib ili ty heightens the auth o ri ty of their control. It should not be forgotten, of co u rse, that there can be no political advantage deri ved from this con­ trol u n ti l film has libera ted itse l f fro m the fetters o f ca p i talist exploita­ tion. Film c apital llses the revoluti onary opportu nities implied by this control for counterrev o lutionary p urposes. Not only does the c u lt of the movie s tar which i t fos ters preserve that magic of t he pers o nality which has long been no more than the putrid magic of its own commod ity char­ acter, but its counterpart, the cult of the audience, reinforces the corr up­ tion b y which fascism is seeking to s u pplant the c lass consciousness of the ma sses .1S

XIII It is inherent in t h e technology of film, a s of sports, tha t everyo ne w h o

witnesses these performances does so as a quasi-expert. An yone who has listened to

a

group of newspaper boys l eaning on their b icycles and dis­

cussing the outcome of a b i cycle race will h ave an inkling of this. In the case of film, the newsreel demonstrates unequivocally that any i nd i � vid ual c a n be i n

a

position t o be filmed . But that possi bility i s n o t enough .

A ny person today can lay claim to being filmed. This claim c a n best be clarified by considering the historical situation of literature tod a y. For centuries it was in t he nature of litera ture that a sma ll number o f writers con fronted many thousands of r eaders . This b e g a n t o change t o ­ w a r d t h e e n d o f the p a s t century. With the growth a n d extension of the press, which con s ta n tl y made new political, religious, s cien tific, profes­ si o nal, and local j ournals available to readers, an increasing num b er of read ers-in isolated cases , at fi rst-turned into wr iters. It bega n with the space set aside for " lette rs to the ed i to r " in the da i l y press, and has now re

a ch ed a point where there is h ardly a European e ngaged in the w o rk

process who could n o t, in principle, find an opportunity to pub lish some­ where or other an account of a w o rk experience, a complaint, a report, o r something o f the kind. Th us, the d istinction between a utho r and pub-

34

P R O D U CTI O N , R E P R O D U CT I O N , A N D R EC E PTI O N

lic is a bout to lose i ts axiomatic dlaracter. Th e difference becomes func­ tional ; i t may v a ry from c a se to case. At any momen t, the rea d e r is r e a dy to b ecome a w ri ter. As an expert-which he has had to become in an y case

in

a

h i ghly sp e ci a lized work process, even if onl y in some minor

ca pacity-the reader gains access to au t horshi p . Wo rk itself is given a voice. A nd the a bility to d es c ri b e a j o b in word s now forms p art of the

expertise needed to ca r r y it out. Literary competence is no lo ng e r founded on specialized hi gher ed uca tion but on polytechnic training, a n d thus i s common p ro perty.

A l l this

ca n

readi ly be

a pp l ied

to fi lm , where shifts th at in litera­

ture took place over cen tu ries have occurred in a dec a de . In

c i ne mat ic

practice-above a ll , in Russia-this s hift h a s a lr e a d y be e n p artl y real­ ized. Some of the actors taking p a r t i n Russia n films are not actors i n our sense but people who po rtra y themselves-a nd p rim a ril y in their own work process. In western Europe today, the capitalist expl oitation of

fi l m obstructs the h u ma n b eing's legitimate claim to b e i n g rep roduc e d . The claim is a lso o bs tructed , incidentally, by une mp l o ymen t, w h i c h ex­ cl u des la rge masses from produc tion-the p r oce s s in which their pri­ mar y entitlement to be reprod u ce d woul d lie. Under th ese ci rcumstances, the fil m ind ust ry has an over ri d ing interest in stimu la ting the i nvolv e­ men t of the ma s ses thr o u gh i l l usi o n a ry disp lays and

a mb i guo us

specula­

tions . To this end i t has set i n motion an immense pu b licit y machine , in the service of which it has placed the careers and love lives of the stars; it has organize d polls; it has held beauty c o n tests . All this in o rd e r to d is ­ tort and corr upt the original a n d j u stified interest o f th e masses i n fi lm­ an in ter est in unde r st a nd i ng themselves and the r efore their class. Thus, the same is true of film a

c apit al

in p artic u l ar as of fascism in gen e r a l :

compe lling urge tow a rd new social opp ortu n ities is bei ng cl a ndesti n e ly

e xp l o i ted in the interests of a property- owning min or i ty. For this r ea ­

son al one, the expropr iation of film c apital is an u rg en t demand for the prol etariat.

XIV The s h o oti n g o f a film, e speci a l ly

inable spectacl e . It pre s ents

a

a

so und film, o ffers a h i t herto uni mag­

process in wh ich i t is i mpo s s i b le to

a ss ig n

to the specta tor a s ingl e vi e w p oi n t which would exc l u d e from his or her field of vi sio n the eq u i pment not di rec t l y involved in the

ac t ion

be­

i ng filmed-the c a mer a , the U ght ing units, the technica l c rew, and so forth ( unl ess the a lign m ent of the spectator 's pup il coi ncided with that of

35

T H E WOR K O F A R T: SE C O N D V E R SION

the c amera ) . This circumstance, more than any other, m akes any resem­ blance between a scene in a fil m studio a n d one onstage superfici a l a n d ir­ relevant. In pri nciple, the theater i nclu des a position from which the ac­ tion o n the stage cannot easily be detecte d a s

an

illusion. There is n o su ch

position where a film is being shot. The illu s ory nature of film i s of the second d egree; i t is the result of e diting . That is to say: I11 the film studio the apparatus has p enetrated so deelJI)' into reality that a pure view of that reality, free of the foreign body of equipment) is the result of a spe­ cial procedure-namely, th e s h o o ting by the specially adjusted photo ­ gratJhic device and the assembly o f that shot with others of the sal'ne kind. The eq uipment-free aspect of reality has here become the height of

artifice, and the vis ion of imme d i ate reality the Blue Flower in the l and o f technology.2 6 This state of a ffa i rs , which c ontrasts so sharply with that

ob-

tains in the theater, can be compa red even more instructively to the situa­ tion in p a inting. Here we have to pose the q uest ion: How does the cam ­ era operator com p a re with the pa inte r ? In a nswer to this, it will be helpfu l to conside r the concept of the operator as it i s familiar to us from s urgery. The s urgeon represents the polar opposite of the m agician. T he attitude of the magicia n , who heals a sick person by a l a y i ng o n o f hands, -

differs from d lat o f the surgeo n, who m akes an intervention in the p a­

tietH. The magici a n maintains the n a tural distance between himself a n d the person treated� m ore precisely� he reduces i t slightly b y layin g on his h a n ds but increases it greatly by h i s authority. The surgeon does exactly ,

the reverse: he grea tly diminishes the distance fro m the patient b y pene� tra ting the p a tie nt s bod y, a n d increases it only sl i ghtly by the c a ution '

with which his hand moves a mong the o rgans. In short: unlike the magi ­ cian ( traces of whom are s till found in the medical p r actitioner ) , the s ur ­ g e o n a bstai ns a t the decisive moment fro m confronting h i s p atien t person

to person; inste a d , he pene trates the p atient by op erating.-Ma gician is to surgeon as painte r is to c inematographer. The painter ma intains in his work a natu r a l d i stance from real i ty whereas the c inematographer p ene­ ,

tra tes d ee ply into its tissue . The images o btai ned by each differ enor­ mo us l y. The painter's is a total image, whereas tha t of the cinematogra­ p her i s piecemea l , its manifold p a rts being assembled according to a new law. Hence, th e presentation of reality in film is incomlJarably the more significant fo r people of today, since it provides the equipment-free astJect of reality th ey are entitled to demand from

a

work of art, a11d does so

precisely o n the basis of the m ost intensive interpenetration of reality with equipment.

36

P R O D UCTI O N , R E P R O D U CTI O N , AND R EC E P T I O N

xv The techno logical reJ)roducib ility of the artwork changes th e relation of the masses to art. The extreme!)! backward attitude to ward a Picasso pa in ting changes into a highly progressive reaction to a Chaplin film. The progressive a ttitude is characterized by an immedi ate , i ntimate fusion of pleasure-pleas ure in seeing and experiencing-with an attitude of ex­ pert appraisal . Such a fusion i s an importa nt social index. As is clearly seen in tbe case of painting, the more red uced the social imp act of an art form, the more wi dely criticism a nd enj oyment of it d iverge in the pu blic. The con ventiona l is uncriticall y enjoyed, while the truly llew is criticized with a version. Not so in the cinema . The decisive reason for this is that nowhere more than in the ci nema are the reactions of ind ivid uals, which together make up the massive reaction of the audience, determined by tbe imminent concentration of re actions into a mass. No sooner are these re­ a ctions manifes t than they regul ate one a nother. Again, the comp arison with painting is frui tful. A p ainting has always exerted a cl aim to be viewed primari ly by a singJe person or by

a

few. The simultaneous view­

ing of paintings by a large audience, as hap pens in the nineteenth century, is an early symptom of the crisis i n painting, a crisis triggered not only by photography but, in a rel atively independent way, by the artwork's cla im to the attention of the masses . Painting, by its nature, cannot provide an object of simultaneous col­ lective receptioll, as architecture has always been a ble to do, as the epic poem could do at one time, and

as

film is a ble to do tod ay. An d altho ugh

direct conclusions a bout the social role of pain ting cannot be drawn from this fact alone, it does have a strongly adve rse effect whenever painting is led by speci al circu mstan ces, as i f against its nature, to confront the masses directly. In the churches a nd monasteries of the Middle Age s, and at the princely courts up to about the end of the eighteenth century, the collective reception of pai ntings took place not simultaneo usly but in

a

manifoldly grad u a ted and hierarchically mediated way. If that has

c h anged, th e ch ange testifies to the speci al confl i ct in which painting has become enmeshed by the technol ogical repro duci bility of the image . And while efforts have been made to present paintings to tlle m asses in ga ller­ ies a nd sa lons, this mode of recepti on gives the masses no means of o rga­ nizi ng and regulating the ir response. Th us, the same public which re acts p rogress ively to a s la psti ck comedy inevita bly displays tude toward Surrealism .

a

backward a tti­

37

T H E W O R K O F A R T: S E C O N D V E R S I O N

XVI The most important social function of film is to establish equilibrium be ­ tween human beings and the apparatus. Film achieves this g o al not o n l y

t o the cam er a but a l s o in terms

i n terms of man's p resentation o f

of his representati o n of h is env i ronment by means of this appa ratus. On the o ne han d film furthers insight into the necessities govern i ng our lives ,

by i ts use of c lose-ups, by its acc entuation of h i d d e n details i n fa m iliar objects, and by its

exploration

of common p lace milieux throu gh the inge­

nious guidance o f the camera; on the other h a n d , i t ma nages to assure us o f a vast and u nsuspected field of action rSpielraumJ . O ur bars a n d city streets, our offices and furnis hed rooms, our rail­ road stations and o ur factories seemed to close relentlessly

a

rou n d us.

Then cam e film and exploded this prison-wo rl d with the dynamite of the split second, so that now we can set off ca lmly o n j o urneys of a d ven­

ture among its fa r fl u ng de bris. Wi th th e close-up, space expands; with -

slow motion, movement is extended. An d j us t as enlargement not me rely cla rifies what we see i n d istinctly " i n a ny ca se," but brings to l ight entirely new structures of ma tter, slow motion not only reveals famili a r a sp ects of movements , but discloses q u ite unk nown aspects with i n the m-a s pects " which do not a ppear as the retard ing of na t u ra l movelnen ts but have a

it

curious glidi ng, flo a ti n g ch aracter of the i r own. " 2 7 Clearly,

is another

na ture which speaks to the camera as compa red to the eye. " O ther" a bove all in the sense that a space informed by human consci o usness gi ves way to a space i n formed by the unconsci o us. Wherea s it is

a

com­

the hap­

monplace tha t, for example, we have some id ea w ha t is invo l ve d in act of w alking ( i f only in ge ner al terms ) , we have no i de a pens d uri ng the spl i t second when

a

at

all what

person actually takes a step . We are

familiar with the movement of picking up a cigarette lighter or a spoon, but know a lmost nothing of what really goes on between h an d and meta l , and stil l less how th is vari es wi th d i ffe rent moods. This is where the camera c omes into play, wi th a l l i ts resources fo r swooping and ris i ng, d isr upti n g and isolating, stretching or comp ressing a seque n ce, enlarging or reducing an o bj ect.

It

is thro u gh the camera that

we

first dis­

cove r the optical u n conscious, just as we discover t h e i nstinctual uncon­ sci ous through psychoanalysis. Moreover, these two types of unconscious a re inti mately linked . For i n m o s t cases t h e diverse aspects of reality captured b y t he film cam era lie o u tside only the normal spectrum of s ense i mpressions. Many of the de-

P R O D u e TI O N , R E P R O D U C T I O N , A N D R E C E P TI O N

38

formations a nd s tereotypes, tra nsfo rmati ons a nd c a ta s trophes which

can

assail the optical worl d i n films afflict the a ctual world in p sychoses, h al­ lucinationsl and dreams. Thanks to the camera, therefo re, the individ ual perceptions of the psychotic or the dreamer can be appropriate d by col­ lecti ve perception. The a ncien t truth expressed by Heraclitus, that those who a re awake have a world in common w h ile each slee per has a wo rld of his own, has been inva lidate d by film-and less b y depic ting the dream world itself than by crea ting figures of c o l lective dream, such as the glo be-encircling Mickey Mous e . 211

If one considers the danger ous tensions which technology and its con­ sequences have engendered in the masses at large-tendencies which at critical stages take on a psych otic character-one also has to recognize that this same technologization [ Technisierung] has created the possibil­ ity of psychic im mun iza ti o n against such mass psych oses. It does so by means of cel'tain films in which the forced development of sadistic fan­ tasies or masochistic delusions can prevent their natural and da nger ous maturation in the ma ss es . Collective laughter is one such preemptive ­

and hea ling o utbreak of m ass psychosis . The coun tless grotesq u e even ts consumed in films a re a grap hic ind ication

of

the d angers threaten i ng

mankind from the rep ressions imp licit in civilization. A merican slapstick comedies a nd D isney films trigger

a

therapeu tic release of unconscious

e nergies .29 Their forerunner was the figure of the eccentric. He was the first to inha bit the new fields of action opened up by film-the first occu­ pant of the new ly b u i l t house . This is the context in which Chaplin takes on historica l significance.

XV I I I t has al ways been one o f the primary tas ks o f art to create a dema nd whose hour of full satisfaction has not yet come .JO The h istory of e very art form has critica l peri ods i n which the particular form strains a fter ef­ fects w hich can be e asily achieved only with a changed technical stan­ dard-that is to say, in a new art form. The excesses and crud ities of art which thus result, particularly in periods of so-called decadence, actu a l ly e merge from the core of its ridlest h istorical e nergies . In recent years, D a ­ d a i s m has amused itself with such b arbarisms. O n l y now is its imp u lse

Dadaism a ttemp ted to produce with the means of painting (or lite l a tu 1 e) the effects which the public today seeks in film .

recognizable: "

'

Every fundamentally new, pioneering creation of demand w i ll over­ shoot its target. D ad aism d i d so to the extent that it sacrifice d the m arket

T H E W O R K O F A R T: S E C O N D V E R S I O N

v alues s o characteristic o f fi lm in favor o f more significant aspirations­ of which, to be s ure, it was u nawa re in the form d escribed here . The Da­ daists a ttached m uch less importance to tlle commercial usefulness of their artworks than to uselessness of those works as o bjects of con­ templative immersion. They sought to achieve this uselessness not least by thorough degra dation of their material. Their poems are "word­ salad" containing obscene expressions and every imagina ble kind of lin­ guistic refuse. The same is true of their paintings) on which they mounted b uttons or train tickets. What they achieved by s uch means was a ruthannihilation of the aura in every object they produced, whicll they branded as a reproduction through th e very means of its production. Be­ fore a painting by Arp o r a poem by August Stramm, it is impossible to take time for concentration and evaluation, as one can before a painting by Derain or a poem by Rilke .31 Contemplative immersion-which, as the bourgeoisie degenerated, became a breeding gro und for asocial be­ havior-is here opposed by distraction rAblen r�ung] as a variant of social behavior. Dadaist manifestations actually guaranteed a q uite vehement distraction by making artworks the center o f scandal. One req uirement was paramount: to outrage the public. From an alluring visual composition or an enchanting fabric of sound, the Dad aists turned the artwork into a missile. It j olted the viewer, tak ing on a tactile [taktisch] quality. It thereby fostered the demand for film, since the distra cting element in film is a lso primarily tactile, being based on s uccessive changes of scene and focus which have a percussive e ffect on the spectator.32 Film has fteed the physical shock effect-which Dada­ ism had kept wratJped, as it were, inside the moral shock effect-from this wrapping. XVI I I

The masses a re a matrix from which a l l customary behavio r toward works of art is today emerging newborn. Quantity has b een transformed into quality: the greatly increased mass of participants has produced a different bnd of participation. The fact that this new m o de of participa­ tion first appeared in a d isreputable form should not mislead the ob­ server. The masses are criticized for seeking distraction [Zerstreuung] in the work of art) whereas the art lover supposedly approaches it with con­ centra tion. In the case of the masses, the artwork is seen as a means o f en­ tertainment; in the case of the art lover, it is considered a n o bj ect of devo­ ti on.-This calls for closer examinationJ� Distraction and concentration

40

P RODUCT I O N , REPRO DUCTI O N , A N D RECEPTION

fo rm a n an tithesis, which may be formulated as foll o ws . A p er s o n who concentrates before a w o r k o f art is absorbed by it; he enters i nt o the work, j ust as, according to legend, a Chinese p ainter ente red his c o m ­ pleted painting while behold ing it.,H By contrast, t h e distracted masses a bsorb the work of art into themse lves. Their waves lap around it; they encomp ass it with their tide. This is m o st o bvious with r ega rd to bui l d ­ ings. Architecture has a lways o ffered the p rototype of an artwork that is received in a s ta te of d i st r a c tio n and through the collective . The laws o f

architecture's reception a re h ighl y instructiv e . Buildings have accomp anied human existence s ince primeva l times. Many art forms have come into being and passed away. Tragedy begins with the Greeks, is extingu ished a long with them, and is revived centu­

r ies later. The epic, which originates in the early days of p e opl es , dies out i n Europe at the end of the R enaiss ance . Panel p a intin g i s a cre­ ation of the M i ddle Ages, and nothing guarantees its uninterr u pted exis­ tence. But the h uman need for shelter i s permanent. Architecture has

never had fa l low periods. Its his to ry is longer than tha t of a ny other art, a nd its effect o ught to be recognized in any attempt to account for the

re­

lati o n s hi p of t h e masses to the work of art. B uildings ar e received in a twofol d manner: by use and by percepti o n . Or, b etter: tacti lely and opti­ ca l ly. Such recep tion cannot be un de rstoo d in terms of the concentrated attent ion of a traveler before a fa m ous building. On the tactile side , there is no counterpart to wh a t contemplation is on the optical si d e . Tacti le re­ ception comes a b o ut not so m u ch b y way of a ttention as by way of habit. The latter large l y determ ines even the optica l recep tion o f a rchitecture, which s p o ntan e o u sly takes the form o f casual n o tici n g , rather than atten­ tive observation. Under certain c ircumstances, this form of reception shaped by architecture acquires cano n ica l v alue . For the tasl Johann Wolfgang von, 1 ,

H a u ptm a n n, Elisa beth, Ford, 3 9 3

Harsdorffer, Georg P hilipp, 1 8 3

9 5 n 1 � 1 1 8 , 1 2 6 , 24� 2 73 , 2 8 7 ,

Hauptmann, Gerhart, 1 3 2

3 3 3 , 3 62, 3 6 9 ; Elective Affinities, 2 ;

Hausmann, Raoul , 2

Faust, 4 8 n 2 3 ; Die Wah lverwandt­

Haussmann, Georges -Eugene, Ba ron,

schaften, 4 8 n23;

Wilhelm

Meisters

Lehrjahre, 4 8 n2 3 ; Zur Farbenleh re,

204, 2 3 4 Goncou rt, Edmond Louis Antoine d e , l41

Goncourt, Jules Alfred Hu ot d e , 1 4 1

1 0 6-1 07; Confession d'un lion devenu

vieux,

Ht:artfield, John

1 06

(Helmut Herzfe l d ) ,

8 6, 1 48 n 3 0 , 220n 1 , 3 0 5 , 3 0 6

Hebel, Joha nn Peter, 3 6 5 Hegel, G. W. F. , 4 8 n2 3 , 1 0 9 , 1 2 7;

Gottsched, Joha n n C hristo ph, 1 9 1 n5

Vorlesungen iiber die

Goya y Lucientes , Franc isco Jose de,

4 4 11 1 0; Vorlesul1gell zur Philosophie

306

Grand ville, J . J . Uean-lgnace- Is idore

" � L.fJ t:: i: I K .

der Geschichte, 4 4.lfl 0

Heima nn, Moritz, 3 5 7

Gerard), 1 0 1 -1 02 , 2 1 1 , 2 1 3 ; Flew's

Heine, Heinr ich, 1 1 9 , 1 3 2 , 3 62-3 63

animees, 2 72

Heracl itus, 38

Grap hic arts, 1 95, 1 97, 2 1 9

Herder, Johann Gottfried , 273

G raphic images, 1 6 8

Herzfelde, Wie l a nd , 220n 1

Graphic line , 1 9 8 , 22 1-222 , 223

Hieroglyphics� 1 76, 230

Graph icness, 6, 7 , 2 1 3

Hill, Da vid Octavius, 2 74 , 279-2 80�

417

I N D EX

2 8 3 ; Newhavel1 Fishwife. 2 7 6 , 2 77;

Robert Bryson, 2 8 4 Hil ler, Kurt, 94n5

Inte l lectuals, 8 4, 8 5 , 9 2 , 1 04-1 0 5

oder das Gestalten, 2 3 1

Isabel/ens Venvandlungen Madchen in sechs

Hindemi th, Paul, 3 9 9 , 400n4

Iva novic, Magda l ene, 1 6 8- 1 6 9

Hirsch, j ul ian, 1 1 9 Historical

materialism,

1 1 6, 1 1 8 , 1 1 9,

1 24 , 1 2 � 1 3 6 , 1 3 8 , 1 42 , 1 43 n l ,

jean Pa u l . See Richter, Jean Paul Jensen, J oha nnes v. , Exotische Novel/en, 43n6

198

Historicism, 1 1 8

Jentzsch, Hans G abrie l , 120

History : a n d Arcades Proj ect, 2 0 9 ; a n d art, 2 , 9-1 1 , 2 1 , 1 84 , 1 9 5 ; o f

Joel, Ernst, 6 0-6 1 , 6 3 Journalis m/newspa pers/press, 2 1 , 3 3 ,

art, 67-72, 1 1 9 ; and B aroque era ,

8 2 , 8 3 , 8 6, 1 0 6 , 1 7 1 , 2 79, 2 9 3 ,

1 75 , 1 8 0, 1 8 2 ; cultural, 1 2 1 , 1 24 ,

343-3 44, 345, 3 5 3 , 3 5 9-3 6 0 , 3 6 1 ,

1 2 5 ; d i a lectica l p resentation of v s .

3 6 2 , 3 63 , 3 69 , 3 7 5 , 3 7 6 .

contemplation, 1 1 8 ; e p i c element in,

Publishing industry

See aho

1 1 8 ; a nd Fuchs, 1 3 1 , 1 3 5 ; im por­

Jugendstil, 1 03 , 1 5 9, 1 6 5 n 1 2 , 283

tance of, 1 6-1 7; and p er cept io n , 6 ,

.l u ng, Franz, 220n 1

9 , 2 3 , 1 5 9 ; a lld photogra phy, 2 6 5 ,

2 6 6 ; t heory of, 5-6; a n d

Kafka, Franz, 2 82 and

Kand i nsky, Wassily, 1 9 6 , 2 1 9 , 272 Kant, Im manuel, 43 n 7 , 1 1 3 n 4 5 , 1 22 ,

rea ding ha bits, 1 9 7 Hitler, Adolf, 4 , 4 1 , 1 6 0 , 1 6 3 n 2, 3 5 0

1 5 2n5 3 , 3 66 Kastner, Eric h , 8 8

Hoffma n n , E . T. A . , 1 32 Hoga rth, William, 3 0 6

Kautsky, Karl, 1 1 6 , 1 3 1 , 1 5 1 n5 0

Homer, 4 2

Ke l ler, Gottfried, 9 5 n 1 7 , 1 1 8

Horkheimer, Max, 1 43n 1 , 1 5 3 n 6 5

Kepl er, johannes, 5 8

Horst, C a r l , 1 7 7

Kerr, Alfred (Alfred K lcmperer) , 94n5 ,

Hugo, Victor, 1 3 1 -1 32, 274; "To the

379

Peo p les of Euro pe, " 1 02; William

Kierkegaard, S0ren, 1 5 9 , 3 7 1 , 3 7 8

Shakespeare, 1 3 2 , 1 5 7n90

Ki uch, 1 9 8- 1 99 , 2 0 0 , 202, 2 0 6 , 20 8-

H u m a n i ties, 1 2 1 , 1 22

209, 2 3 8 , 254, 3 2 1 n l 0

Ludwig, 1 6 8 , 1 6 9 ;

Huma n senses, 3, 9, 1 1 , 1 2 , 1 3 , 2 64, 2 6 5 . See also Perception

Hypnerotomachia PolifJhili,

Hmzdschrift und Charak ter, 1 93 ; 23 0

Prinzipien der Charakterologie, 1 9 3 Klee , Paul, 2 72; Abstraktes

I bsen, Henrik, Master B uilder, 1 03

1 9 6; New Angel, 3 8 7

Aquarell,

Iljinsky, Igor Vlad inl irovich, 323

Kleine B ibel far Kinder (Te u b n er ) , 2 3 1

Image, 23, 97-9 8, 1 6 9, 1 7 0 , 1 76 , 1 77,

Klopstock , Friedrich Gottli eb, 1 9 0

1 9 5 , 2 1 3 , 2 1 4 , 263-26 4 , 272, 2 7 3 ,

Knaus, Ludwig, 1 6 1

276, 3 0 1

K01'11,

Image-wor ld, 1 1 -12, 264, 272

Imme rman n , Karl Le b recht,

247

c., " Proletari at und Klassik, "

1 22.

K racauer, S i egfried, 2, 4, 54n3 3 , 2 8 1

Imperi a l Panorama, 5 2 n3 0 , 75-76

Kraemer, H a ns, 1 20

Im pressionism , 1 0 0 , 30 1

Kra us, Karl, 1 3 8 , 344, 3 5 3 , 3 6 1 -

Inscri ption , 62, 1 70 , 1 7 1 , 1 7 6 , 1 7 8 n 3 , J 9 8 , 1 9 9 , 2 1 1 , 2 1 3-2 1 4 , 252, 2 7 9 ,

2 8 0, 2 9 4 , 2 9 5 , 3 0 5

3 8 8 ; "After Thirty Yea rs, " 3 8 1 3 8 2 ; " El egy o n the Death of a

Sou nd, " 3 73 ; "The End, " 3 6 6;

I N D EX

418

Liebknecht, Wilhel m ,

Kra us, Ka rl (continued)

" The Fors a k e n, " 3 8 4; " In Th ese

Great Times, " 364; " Lyrik der Deutschen, " 3 8 6 ; Na chts, 3 77;

Lin fert, Carl, 6 8 , 70, 7 1 7 2 -

Lis sitzky,

" O ffenb ach Renaissance," 3 9 0n1 3 ; "To Eternal Peace , " 3 8 3 ; Wo rds

Verse, 3 77, 3 84

1 16

Li e gl e r, L e opo l d , 3 70

in

EI , 2

Li tera ture, 3 3-3 4, 3 6 , 6 8 , 7 9-93 , 1 8 1-1 8 4 , 2 0 6 , 2 1 4 , 25 8-259, 3 2 3 , 3 24, 344 , 345-346

Krull, G erm a in e , 2 9 3 ; Display Win­

Lithography, 20, 21

dow, 29 1 ; Storefront, 292 Kzmstwolle11., 1 0 , 1 9 7 , 2 0 5 , 2 0 9 , 2 5 4

L ivre jou-jou (ch i l d ren'S

La Bruyere, Jean de, 1 4 1

Lornbroso, Cesa re, 1 29

book), 2 3 J

L o h en stein, Daniel Ca spar von, 1 8 5n l l

Lacis, Asia, 2 , 7

Laos, Adolf, 3 62 , 3 6 8, 3 72-3 73 , 3 8 0 , 3 87

La fa rgue, Panl, 1 07

Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de,

Louis Napoleon.

See Napoleon III

Louis P h i l ippe, 1 0 3 , 1 0 7, 1 32 , 3 04,

1 3 6, 3 1 3 La m p re c ht, Karl, Deutsche

3 1 On 1 7 Luther, Martin, 1 71

Geschichte, 1 24-1 25

L a ngl e , Ferd inand, Louis - B ro nze et Ie Language, 1 9 5 ; a n d a l l ego ry, 1 8 7 ,

1 8 8 ; a n d Baroque e ra, 1 76, 1 8 11 8 4; and children's b o ok s , 227, 23 3-234; disl1lc!mbenllent of, 1 68, 1 8 7-1 9 1 ; and knowledge, 1 67; and Kraus, 344, 3 62, 363, 3 64, 3 6 5 , 3 6 9 , 3 7 1 , 3 73-3 74, 3 76, 379, 3 8 1 , 3 82, 3 8 3 3 8 5 3 8 7 ; and meaning, 1 6 7; and movable type, 20j n ature of, 1 6 7- ] 6 8 ; and p a i nting, 1 9 8 ; and ra d i o , 3 92 ; and scri pt, 1 6 7, 1 6 81 70; the o ry of, 7 -

Lyser, Johann Peter, 2 3 3 ; B uch der Miih rche11. fur Tochter

Saint-Simonien, 1 00-1 0 1

,

Laske r-Schuler, Else, 3 8 0

and S o h n e

gebildeter Stande, 23 0, 2 3 3 ; Fabelbuch,

233; Linas

Mahrchenbuch, 2 3 3 Machiavelli, Niccol(), 1 3 5 Mad ariaga y

Roj o,

S a l va d o r de,

308n 6

Maeterlinck, M a u r i c e , 3 3 8

Magical R ed Umbrella, The, 232 Ma le, Emile, "l 4 8 n3 2

Mallarme, Stephane, 24, 1 70, 1 7 1 , 258;

Un Coup de des jamais

n 'abolira Ie hasard, 1 72

Edona rd,

Lassalle, Fer d in and, 1 1 6 , 122, 3 76

Manet,

Le Cor busier ( Ch a rles Ed ou a rd

Mann, Heinrich, 84, 9 4 n 5

Mann, Th oma s, 9 4 n 6 , 3 0 0

Jeanneret), 3 0 0

Marinetti, Emil i o Filippo To m aso, 4 1 -

Leo n a rdo d a Vi n ci 2 5 8 , 2 74 ,

Leopardi,

Giacomo, D i a l o gue "

be­

t w een Fash ion a nd Dea th, " 1 02 Le Play, Frederi c ,

2 1 3 , 214

GUUI'jets eurOpee11.5,

4 2 ; " Manifeste de Futurisme," 54n3 7

Mark, 1 9 8 , 222-225 Marol les, Michel, 1 4 1

108

L e p o rell o pop-up books, 200, 2 3 6

Marx, Karl, 1 2, 1 9 , 97, 9 8 , 1 0 1 , 1 02 ,

Lessing, Gotthold Ephra i m , 1 1 9

1 1 6 , 1 22, 1 2 7 , 1 3 1 , 1 3 2, 1 5 0n4 9 ,

Lhote, Andre, 3 0 0 , 3 0 1-302, 3 0 5

2 1 5 n3, 2 6 5 , 3 2 1 n l 0 , 3 78 , 3 8 5 ;

Lichtenberg, 350, 3 8 8

G e org

C h ristoph , 8 9,

Lichrwark, Alfred, 2 8 7

Communist M a nifes to ,

1 05 , 1 08

Ma rxism, 1 4 3 , 143nl , 1 5 1 n5 0 Mask, 2 5 5 , 2 9 3

419

I N DEX Ma sses: and a rt, 3 9 , 40, 3 2 0 , 3 2 1 n l 0; education for, 61, 201-202; and fas­ c i s m , 4 1 ; and film, 3 3 , 3 4 , 3 8 , 2 0 5 , 3 1 8-3 1 9 , 3 2 5 ; lea d er s h i p of,

50 n25 ; pa rticipation by, 3 9 ; and pho togra phy, 5 4 n 3 6 ,

8 7 ; a nd p ro le­

Na poleon H I , 1 0 7, 1 0 8 , 1 1 4 n48 Nati o n a l

S ocia l ism , 1 5 8 , 1 6 0 , 1 62 .

See also Fascism

Nature, 26, 59, 99, 1 0 9, 1 8 1 -1 8 2 , 264, 2 6 5

Nazaren es, 1 4 1 , 2 0 8 , 2 4 0

tariat, 4 1 ; and ra d io, 3 4 6 , 3 9 1 , 392,

Neo-Kantianism, 1 7 7, 1 78 , 1 9 8

3 94 , 4 0 3-4 04; and re produc tion,

N e r val , Gerard de, 1 32

2 3-24, 3 6 ; and un iqu eness, 23, 24;

Nestroy, Johann, 3 7 1 , 3 7 9, 3 8 0

and war, 4 1 -42 M a u b l a nc , Re ne, 92, 9 3 Mehring, F r a n z ,

8 8 , 1 1 6, 1 1 7, 1 24-

1 25 , 1 4 3 n 1 ; Lessing-Legende, 1 1 9 , 127

Newha ll, Beaumont, 2 6 8 n l New O bj ectivi ty [Neue Sachlichkeitl, 6 3 , 84, 8 6 , 8 � 9 2 , 1 4 8 n 3 0 , 1 6 4n8 Newsp'l.pers. See Journalism/newspa­

pers/press

Meissonier, Jean-Loui s-Ernest, 3 04 Mendelssohn, Anj a , 1 6 8 , 1 6 9, 1 92, 1 93

Mendelss ohn, Ge org, 1 6 8 , 1 6 9 Mes mel; Franz Anton, 253n3

Nguyen Trang Hiep, Paris, ca pita le de la France, 9 6 Niepce, Joseph Nice phore, 1 1 1 n 1 6, 2 74

Mi c ha elis, Ka rin, 371

Nietzsche, Fri edr ich, 9 4 n 5 , 1 46n1 9,

Michon, Je a n Hippolyte, 1 9 2

Nouvelle R evue Franfaise ( perio dical),

M ic h e let, Ju l e s , 9 7 , 1 3 2 M icke y Mouse (cartoon character), 3 8 , 5 1 n2 9 , 3 1 8 , 3 3 8

Midsummer Nigh t's Dream, A ( film) , 29

1 65n 1 2 , 3 6 3 , 3 8 3 301

Nava lis (Fried rich Le op old , Freiherr von Harden bu rg ), Heinrich von

Ofte rdingen, 5 1 n 26, 1 9 8, 2 3 8n 2

Mies Va n d e r Rohe, Lud wig, 2 Mobius, P a u l Ju l iu s , 1 2 9 Moho l y - Nagy, Lisz16, 2, 3 , 9 , 2 7 1 272, 2 9 0 ; " Production-Reproduc­

Nungesser, Ch arles, 3 5 3 Offenbach, Ja c que s , 1 0 2 , 3 7 1 , 3 79 , 3 8 0, 3 9 4; L a v i e parisie1l11eJ 3 8 9 n 1 2

O p itz, Marti n, 1 8 1

ti on," 1 1 -1 2 Monet, Claude, 255

Orl ik, Emil, 2 8 0, 2 8 3

M o n tage, 62, 63 , 9 0 , 9 1 , 1 0 9 , 1 70, 3 1 7-3 1 8 , 395

P acher,

M i ch a e l , 6 8 , 6 9

Montez, Lola ( M a ri e Gilbert ) , 1 2 0

Pacht, Otto, 6 8 , 6 9 , 70

MUller, Friedrich v o n , 1 1 8

Painting, 2 7, 1 49n34, 1 9 5 , 196, 223-

Jv1uri l l o , Bartoleme Esteban, 1 2 9 Mllschg,

68

Music, 8 7-8 8 , 3 7 8-3 79

Musil, Robert, The Man with out

Qualities, 2 6 8

224, 299-3 1 1 ; a nd architecture, 7 1 ;

Chinese, 2 1 3-2 1 5 , 2 5 7-2 6 1 ; a s commodity, 3 0 3 ; a n d film, 3 5, 3 6 , 53n3 2 ; a n d gra phic arts, 2 1 9 ;

and

l angu age, 1 9 8 ; a nd l i tera ture, 2 1 4;

Muthet; Richard, 6 7

longitudinal section of, 1 97, 2 1 9;

Muy bridge, Eadward, 265

and Mi ddl e Ages, 4 0 ; and panora­

Nadar ( Gaspard-Felix To urna cho n ) ,

276, 2 8 1 , 2 8 2 , 2 8 4 , 2 9 0 , 302-3 03,

mas,

1 0 0 , 274, 2 8 1

99;

and pho to g ra p h y, 2 8 , 1 0 0,

304, 3 1 2; and public a ffairs, 3 0 1 ;

Name/naming) 1 9 8 , 2 0 8 , 224

unity of, 1 9 8 ; and vertical orienta­

Napoleon 1, 9 7

tion, 1 97, 2 1 9; waterco lor, 240-24 1

INDEX

420 Pa n o fsk y, Erwin, 9

Piran d e l lo, Luigi, 3 2 ; Sigira, 3 1

Panorama, S, 6, 1 6 , 99-1 0 0 , 1 1 1 0 13 ,

Planeta ri u m , 5 8-5 9

1 5 8-1 63

Pl ato, 79, 89 Play, 2 6 , 48n23 , 24 1

Pa ris, S , 96- 1 0 9

Paris

desert ( a n onym ous work), 1 0 7

Pe rc e p ti o n, 5, 6, 7, 9 , 1 2 , 23 , 4 0 , 4 1 , 1 5 9 , 2 0 1 , 20 4, 2 1 3 , 2 3 3 , 27 1 , 3 0 2 , 3 1 5-3 1 7 . See also Hu m a n se n se s

Pes ta l oz zi ,

Johann He in r ich , 200, 2 0 1

P etty bourgeoisie, 5 0n25, 1 5 8 , 1 6 0,

P lekhanov, Georgi Va len tinovich, 1 1 6 , 1 5 0n49, 3 0 9n 1 31 3 1 3 Poe, E d ga r Alla n, 43n7, 1 1 3n45; "The Man o hhe C r owd , " 1 1 3 n40; " P hi­

loso phy o f Furniture , " 1 04 Poete, Marcel,

Urze vie de cite Paris,

16

2 3 3 . See also Bourgeoisie

Pfau, Lu d wig, 1 2 3

Portrai ture, 1 0 0, 279, 282, 2 8 6, 3 02303, 3 12

P femfert, F r anz , 2 2 0 n 1 Ph a lans tery, 9 8

Po tonnie, Georges, 2 6 8 n 1

Phantasmagoria, 1 1 , 1 4, 1 0 1 , 1 02 ,

Press. See Journalism/newspapers/

1 0 3 , 1 04, 1 0 6 , 1 0 7 , 1 0 8 , 26 5 , 2 6 8 , 3 1 9 , 320

p ress Prevost, Pierre, 99

Philosopher Schelling, The (ph oto­ gra ph ) , 2 8 0 , 2 8 1

Pri n cess of Vengeance, The (book), 245

Ph oto gr a ph y, 263-26 8 , 27 1-273 ,

Pro letariat , 1 2 , 1 9 , 4 1 , 5 01125 , 79, 9 1 ,

3 02-3 1 0 ; and art, 2 8 , 267, 275,

1 0 1 , 1 05, 1 0 7, 1 0 8 , 1 2 1 , 127, 13 1 ,

2 8 7 , 2 8 8-2 9 3 , 2 94, 3 03 , 3 1 3 ; a nd

1 3 2, 330, 345

a u r a , 27; a uthen tic ity o f, 2 1 ; a nd

Proust, Marcel, 3 9 7

ca ptions , 206; as co mm od i ty, 267,

Psychoa nalysis/psychology, 1 4 , 1 3 6-

3 0 3 , 3 1 3; and creativi ty, 293 ; a n d

1 3 9 , 1 93 , 1 9 9, 2 0 0 , 2 3 7, 279. See

cult vs. e xh ibiti o ll value, 27;

also Unconsc ious

tive-art, 3 0 5 ;

d e co ra ­

de ve lopmen t of, 1 0 0;

and e d ucation , 1 3 - 1 4; and fetish ­ ism, 293 ; Fre u n d on, 3 1 2-3 1 4;

his­

to ry o f, 264-267, 274-295; indus­ tri a l ization of, 274-2 75; and

j o urnalism, 293 ;

and masses,

54n3 6 ; M o ho l y - Na gy on, 1 1 , 1 2 ;

and mon t age , 9 0 j a n d na ture, 1 0 9; a nd New Obj ectivity, 8 6, 8 7, 8 8 ;

a n d pa i n tin g , 2 8 , 1 0 0, 276, 2 8 1 ,

Publishing ind ustry, 343-3 4 6 , 355-

3 5 8 , 359-3 6 0 . See also J o u rna l ism/

newspa pers/press

,md Filmmanuskript, 47n22; Mothel:.

P u dovkin, V. 1 . , 2 8 7; Film R egie 330 P ul ver, Max, 1 9 3

Qtterelle du realisme, La, 3 05 , 3 0 6 Q u i ne t, Edgar, 1 3 2

282, 284, 2 9 0 , 302-3 03 , 3 0 4, 3 1 2 ;

a n d pa n orama s , 9 9 ; and

Ra d i o , 4 9 n24, 9 0 , 9 1 , 3 46-3 5 1 , 3 9 1 -

physiogn o trace, 3 0 3 , 3 1 2; and pol i ­

3 92 , 3 9 3-3 9 6 , 3 9 7-400, 403-405,

t i cs, 2 6 8 ; a nd

4 0 7-4 09

reproduction, 20-2 1 ,

24, 2 5 , 290, 293, 3 1 3 ; an d shock

Raim und, FerdIn and, 3 8 2

e ffect, 2 6 7 , 2 94 ; a nd Wiertz, 2 1 1.

Ramuz, Charl es Fer di n a nd , 4 8 1123

See

also Camera; Fil m

Ra nke, Leopold vo n , 1 1. 9

Photomo n tage, 8 6 , 1 00

Ra p ha e l, 2 0 8 , 2 2 3 , 224

Picasso, P a blo, 1 9 6

Ray, Nian (Emmanuel Radni tzky) ,

Piers on, Pi erre- Lo uis, 2 8 1 Pilgrim,

The ( fi l m ) , 3 3 7

305

Rea d er/rea d i ng, 33-3 4 , 1 9 7, 202,

421

I NDEX

Redon, Odi lon, 2 1 3

267; Parliamentary Representative (a D em ocrat), 2 8 9 ; Pastry Cook, 288 Saud ek, Robert, 1 6 8 , 193 Scheerba rt, Paul, 3 8 7; GlasarchitektU1� 9 7, 9 8

Re inhardt, Max, A Midsummer

Schelling, Fried rich W i lhelm Joseph

204, 2 0 6 , 2 1 9, 226-227, 245 , 345 , 346, 3 55, 356, 3 5 7, 3 5 9-3 6 0 . See also Audience

Rech t , Camille, 2 8 3-2 84, 2 8 5 ,

2 9 6n 1 4

von, 2 8 0 , 2 8 1

Night's Dream, 29

Renaissance, 40, 1 2 9 , 149n34, 1 71 ,

Scherchen, Hermann, 399 Scheu, Robert, 3 6 7

1 8 0, 230, 3 02 Renger-Patzsch, A l bert , Die Welt lst

Schickele, Rene, 220n 1 Schiebel , Johann Georg, 1 89

scha� 8 6-8� 2 6 7, 2 9 8n26, 3 05

Ren n e r, Paul, 229

Schiller, Friedrich, 247, 3 8 5

Reproduction, 1 1 , 14, 1 5 , 1 9-42, 1 26 ,

Schinkel, Karl Friedrich, 74n 1 6

142, 2 8 5-28 6 , 290, 293, 3 03 , 3 1 3 Revolution, 202, 344 Ri bera, Jose, 1 2 9 Rich ter, Hans, 2 Richter, Jean Paul, 233; Levana, 9 8 Rickert, H ei n ri ch, 1 79n9 Riegl, Alois, 9-1 0, 23, 69, 1 9 7, 206, 2 73 n4; Late Roman Art Industry 1 0 , 70 Rilke, Rainer Maria, 3 9 , 1 60 Rimbaud, Arthur, 1 0 8 Robespierre, Maximilien de, 1 3 5

Schlegel, August Wilhelm, 73n8, 1 90

,

Sch legel, Fried rich, 1 , 247 Schlosser, Friedrich Christoph, 134 Schmidt, Erich, 1 1 9 Schmitz, Oscar A dolf Hermann, 3 2 8 ,

330 SchobeG Joha nn , 3 79 Schoen, Ernst, 2, 346-347, 3 9 3 , 3 9 7-

1 60, 1 76, 1 83 , 1 9 8 , 204, 205, 20 8 , 233, 240 Roosval, Johnny, 3 0 0 Rousseau, Henri, 3 9 7

400; "Musical Enterta inment by Means of Ra dio, " 3 9 7 S cholem, Gersho1l1, 1 9 8 , 2 1 5 11n2,3, 220n1 Schon berg, Arnold, 3 8 8 n2 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1 62, 2 8 6 Schrift, 1 78 n 3 Schultz-Delitzsch, I-Termann, 1 2 1 Science, 1 22, 1 2 7 , 1 8 4 Script, 1 6 7, 1 6 8-1 70, 1 71-172, 1 76 , 1 8 9, 2 1 3 , 3 4 6 Script-image, 1 6 8 , 1 76

Ru bens, Peter Pa ul, 2 1 1

Sedlmayr, Hans, "Towa rd a Rigorous

Rococo period, 1 8 3 Rodin, Auguste, 1 2 5 Romans, a n cient, 23 Romantic ism, 1 , 3 , 1 3 2, 1 33, 1 4 1 ,

Ru in, 1 8 0- 1 84

S t u dy of Art," 6 8

Russia, 3 4, 83 , 8 9 , 92, 3 9 1 Russian film , 34, 2 8 6 , 2 9 3 , 323-326,

Self-alienation, 32-3 3 Severin-Mars ( a ctor ) , 2 9 Sha kespeare, W illiam, 1 35 , 3 09 n 1 3 ,

336

3 1 3 , 3 3 5 , 3 7 1 , 3 8 0 , 3 84, 3 8 5 S a i nt-Pol-Roux ( P a ul Roux) , 237

Sign, 1 6 8, 1 97, 1 9 8 , 22 1-2 22, 223

Saint-S imon , Henri d e , 1 1 2n24

Simmel, Georg, "The Metropolis and

Sa int-Simonians, 1 0 1 , 1 2 3

Ment a l Life," 3 1 6

Salles, Georges, 2 14, 2 5 8 , 259

Siren, 0 . , 257

Sander, August. 2 6 6-26 7, 2 87, 293;

Sittenspriiche des Buchs Jesus Sirach,

Das A n tlitz der Zeit, 297n 1 8 ; Mel1schen des

2 0 . Jah rh underts .

229, 23 0-23 1 Max, 1 25

Slevogt,

422

INDEX

Social Democracy, 1 3 1 , 1 5 1 n5 0

Tietze, Hans, 3 00, 3 0 1

Social Democra tic Party, 1 1 6 , 1 2 1 ,

Tikkun, 8 n 3

Ti tia n (Tizia no Vece l l i ) , 25 5

1 23 , 1 3 0

Soupa u l t, Philippe, 3 3 5-3 3 6, 3 3 7

Toul ouse-Lautrec, Henri de, 1 4 8 n 3 0

S tahr, Adolf Wilhelm Theod or, 1 1 9

To ussenel , Al phonse , 1 0 2

S tel zner, Ca rl Ferdina nd, 2 8 I

Traucyspiel,

Stern be rger, D olf, 1 5 8-1. 6 3 Stifter, Ad albert, 3 65-3 6 6 , 3 8 5 , 3 8 6

Tretiakov, Se rgei, 8 "1 - 8 3 , 2 0 6 ;

manders

S toe ck er, Adolf, 1 60

S a s ch a , 2 9 3 S t o sc h , Baron Phi l ipp v o n ,

1 , 2 , 1 75 , 1 8 0- 1 8 4 , 1 90,

21 3

of the

Field,

82

Com-

Tschabuschnigg, A d o l f Ritter von, 247

Stone,

141

Stassi, O tto, 3 6 5

Stramm, A ug us t, 3 9

S tra nitzky, J o s eph, 1 9 1 n5

Stri nd berg , August, Advent, 222 Su rrealism, 36, 1 0 8- 1 09, 1 6 4n 8 , 1 70, 1 99 , 200, 2 0 1 , 2 0 2 , 209, 2 1 1 , 2 1 606, 2 3 7-2 3 8 , 2 8 5 , 2 8 6 , 2 9 3 , 3 0 4-3 05, 3 9 4

Swift, Jon a tha n, 3 78

Tuc h o l s ky, Ku rt, 8 8

Tzara} Tris ta n , 290-2 9 1 Uecello, Paolo, 1 49 n 3 4 , 3 0 2 Unconscious, 1 9 3 , 2 5 5 ; optical, 3 73 8 , 2 6 4-2 65 , 26 6 , 2 7 8-2 7� 3 2 0 .

See

also

Psychoanal ysis/psychology

Urbanis m/city, 5, 9 9 , 1 0 4, 3 1 7-3 1 8 Uto pia , 9 8 , 1 0 5 Utrill o,

S y mbol , 1 9 7, 1 9 8

M a u ri ce,

2 5 5 , 276

S y mbolists, 2 1 1

Valery, Pau l, 25 8

Synchronici ty, 5 , 1 5

Va nderb u r ch , Emile, Louis-Bronze et

Taine, Hippolyte, 1 0 1

Va n de Ve l de, Henry, 1 03

Ta oism, 204, 226

Ve r tov, D z iga ( Denis Ar kad yevieh

Ie Saint-Simonien, 1 00-1 0 1

Tay lorisll1, 3 1 6, 3 1 8 , 3 2 1 n 8

Techno l ogy, 1 , 3 , 6; and ancient

Kau fman) , The Soviet Sixth of the Earth, 324

Greeks, 2 7-2 8 ; a nd art, 1 9-42, 1 2 7,

Viertel, Berthold, 3 70 , 3 8 2

1 6 1 ; and cosmos, 5 8 , 5 9 ; d es t r uc­

Vi rg i l ,

tiveness of, 1 2 3 ; and ecs ta tic tra nce,

Aeneid,

1 05

Viv id n ess , 1 8 7, 1 95 , 2 1 3

1 2 , 5 8 ; and film, 3 3 , 3 1 8} 3 2 9 , 3 3 0 , 3 4 0 ; a n d Ha ussmann , 1 07; a n d

J ugendstil, 1 03 ; and Kra us, 3 6 3 ,

Wagner, Richard, 1 0 6 ; Lohengrill, 3 2 5 ; Tannhausel� 3 25

3 66; and mass a rt, 1 42 ; and na ture,

Wa l d a u , M ax (Richard Georg Spiller

2 6 , 5 9 ; and p anorama s, 99; a nd

perception, 1 2 , 3 1 5-3 1 6 ; a nd p ho ­ togra p hy, 265, 279 ; a n d politics, 49 n24; prehis toric vs . modern, 26;

von Hauensch i l d ) , 247

Wa ley, Arthur (Art h ur D a vi d SchlossL 257

WaHon, Hen ry} 3 2 0 n 3

and rad io, 3 9 1 , 3 94 ; a nd revolu­

Wa llraff, Ferdinand Franz, 1 41

tion, 4 5n 1 1 ; and science, 122, 1 23 ;

Wa ng

a n d sensori u m , 1 3 ; a n d utopianism , 1 3 ; a n d war, 4 2

Tel ep h o ne , 77-78 Television, 2 0 8 , 3 9 8-3 9 9

Yu a nq i ,

Landscape in the Styles

of Ni Zan and Huang GongwangJ 212, 2 1 4

War,

4 1-42

Warb urg Institute, 9

Theate r. See Dramaltheater

Warthmiiller, Ro bert, 1 6 1

Th i r d Reich, 1 5 8 , 1 6 2

Weber, A l fred, 1 4 7n28

423

INDEX

\Veber, Max, 1

\Vincke1mann, Johann Joa chim, 126,

Wedekind, Frank, 1 3 7 , 1 5 4n72, 380

Weill, Kurt, 3 3 8 , 3 99

dere in Rome, " 1 76

Wei ma r era, 94n5

Wo l fflin, Heinrich, 6 9 , 70, 1 96 ; Die klassische Kunst, 6 7, 1 26 - 1 2 7

Weininger, Otto, 3 8 0

Weiss, Karl , The GlorioHs Martyr Johannes von Nepomuck, 1 8 9

227-2 2 8

Worl d Exhibiti ons, 1 0 0-1 02 Worringer, Wi l hel m, 9 Writers, 3 3-3 4, 79-95 , 3 4 5 , 3 55 , 3 59

Werfel, Franz, 2 9

Wich , J . P. , Steckenpferd and

1 4 1 , 1 4 8 113 "1 , 1 8 3 ; " Description o f

t h e Torso o f Hercules In t h e Bel ve­

Puppe,

Wickhoff, Franz, 2 3

Writing, 6, 1 6 7, 1 6 9 , 1 7 0 , 1 95 , 204205, 2 0 6

Wundt, Wilhelm Max, 1 9 3

Wie rtz, Antoine Joseph, "1 0 0, 2 1 4 , 2 9 3-2 9 4 , 305-3 0 6 ; Oeuvres

Ziel, Das . 94n5

litteraires, 21 1 ; Thoughts and Vi­

Zobeltitz, Fedor von, 1 5 3 11 6 4

sions of a Severed Head. 209-2 1 1 ,

Zola, Emile: Therese RaquinJ 9 8 ; Tra­

249-25 1

Wigman, Mary, 3 3 8

vail, 9 8 Zucker,

\'V'ol f,

3 4 7, 3 4 8 , 3 4 9, 3 93

C R E D ITS

This work is

a

tra nslation of sel ections from Wa lter Benj amin, Gesammelte

Schriften, Unler Mitwirkung von Th eodor W. A dorno und Gershom Scholem,

herausgegebe17 von Rolf Tiedemann

und

Hermann Schweppe1thause1� copyright

© 1 972 , 1 9 74, 1 977, 1 9 8 2, 1 9 8 5 , 1 9 8 9 by Suhrkamp Verl ag. With tbe excep­

tions noted below,

all translations were

previously p u b l ished in Wa l ter Benj a m i n,

Selected Writings, 4 vols . , cd. Michael W. Jennings et a 1 . ( Cambridge,

vard Un i versity

Mass . :

Har­

1 9 9 6-200 3 ) , Chapters 3, 1 2-1 3, and 1 8-20 previ ous ly ap­

peared in Selected Writings, Volume 1; Chap ters 5 , 8 , 1 7, 2 1-23 , 2 5 , 27-2 8 , 3 135, and 3 7-42 in Vol u me 2; Chapters 1 -2 , 6-7, 1 0, 2 9 , a n d 36 in Vo lume 3; a n d

Chapters 1 1 and 3 0 in Vol ume 4 . The translation of " Paris, d i e Hauptstadt d e s XIX. Jahrhunderts " ( Paris, the Ca p i tal of the Nineteenth Century) was previously p u blished in Wa lter Benj amin, Th e Arcades Project, trans. H oward Eiland a nd Kevin Mc La ughlin ( Cambridge,

Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1 9 9 9 ) . Portions o f the tran slation o f !