Walter Benjamin, This American Life and the Politics of Storytelling
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MA Thesis Literatuur en Cultuurkritiek, Utrecht University Walter Benjamin, This American Life and the Politics of Storytelling Supervisor: Kári Driscoll Second Reader: Sarah Chambers June 2016 Duindam 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Benjamin: Political Art and Auratic Art .............................................................................................. 6 3. Mass Media, Representation and Fragmentation .............................................................................. 14 3.1 Storytelling and the Newspaper................................................................................................... 14 4. Radio Communities ........................................................................................................................... 20 4.1 Radio in the United States ........................................................................................................... 20 4.2 Public Radio and This American Life .......................................................................................... 22 4.3 (Imagined) Communities ............................................................................................................. 25 5. The Politics of Personal Storytelling ................................................................................................. 30 5.1 Mass-Mediated Storytelling ........................................................................................................ 30 5.2 The Aura of Storytelling .............................................................................................................. 36 5.3 “The Facts Don’t Matter” ............................................................................................................ 39 5.4 The Potential of Personal Storytelling ......................................................................................... 43 6. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 47 7. Works Cited ....................................................................................................................................... 50 Duindam 2 1. Introduction According to audio program director John Biewen, we currently live in a “golden age” of radio storytelling (“Introduction”). Yet, the contemporary interest in storytelling extends beyond the medium of radio and is notable in various spheres of life such as politics, business and science. Storytelling is consequently often also understood as a means of persuasion, a mode of understanding or a marketing ploy. In addition, the figure of the storyteller is enjoying similar attention and popularity as many journalist and authors present themselves as such. At first glance, the current prevalence of both the concept and practice of storytelling appears quite contradictory to Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay “The Storyteller” in which he predicted the imminent demise of storytelling and the storyteller. Benjamin’s preoccupation with storytelling was part of his career-spanning interest in the effects of media on modern interaction and communication. Although he cited technological advancements and the advent of the information industry as detrimental to the art of storytelling, he was nevertheless eager to explore the political potential of mass media. His essays on of visual media such as film and photography have often been discussed in various academic fields. Yet, during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Benjamin also created and narrated various radio programmes. He furthermore wrote various essays on the medium of radio. In these works, and “The Storyteller,” Benjamin provides a critical framework to apply to the prevalence of storytelling programmes in mass media in the twenty-first century. Thus far, most critics have used “The Storyteller” to discuss the manner in which the absence of traditional storytelling is thematised in modern literature. For instance, David Kelman argues that the form of the short story demonstrates the fragmentary nature of modern experience and provides readers with the unnatural experience of shock. Rita Barnard observes that the practice of providing counsel continues in modern media such as the newspaper. Yet, she observes that texts such as Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts Duindam 3 demonstrate the difficulty or impossibility of providing meaningful advice in the modern setting of newspaper offices. Others question Benjamin’s claims, and attempt to demonstrate, that the practice of traditional storytelling continues in modern media. Areti Dragas argues that the novel continues the tradition of storyteller and that novelists can be seen as storytellers. In addition, Ariel Gratch and Nathan Crick explore the possibilities that new media provide for traditional storytelling. They observe the continuous presence of Benjaminian figures such as the storyteller and the charlatan in contemporary Internet personalities. Their claim that Benjamin’s discussion of media and storytelling remains relevant “In the age of digital reproducibility” is affirmed by Jaeho Kang (315). In his Walter Benjamin and the Media, Kang observes that Benjamin’s writings demonstrate an awareness of new media’s potential for both shared experiences and the isolation and privatization of the individual (67, 69). Critics such as Alexander Freund and Areti Dragas note that although storytelling has become a “buzzword,” it lacks a widely accepted and clear definition (Freund 97).1 This is also illustrated by the fact that their discussions are preoccupied with widely diverging storytelling phenomena. Given Benjamin’s preoccupation with the effects of media on storytelling, his essays consequently hold interesting implications for the contemporary practice of storytelling. Ira Glass’ radio programme This American Life (TAL) is an important part of the current golden age of radio storytelling. In fact, Biewen cites TAL as the archetypical programme on which subsequent storytelling programs have been modelled. The weekly programme is available to listeners both through the medium of radio and as a podcast 1 Similarly, Kay Stone argues that the term storyteller “is vague enough to cover a multiplicity of performance acts” (234). Duindam 4 available on the Internet. The website provides listeners with the opportunity to select a topic using tags or through the selection of a community. TAL has remained popular since its creation in 1995. The podcast is “often the most popular podcast in the country” as 2.5 million people download each episode and another 2.2 million listen to the radio programme (“About”). Its longevity and function as a model for other storytelling programmes place TAL at the centre of the contemporary storytelling hype. Thus, given TAL’s enduring popularity, a more extensive discussion of the programme’s connection to the practice of storytelling and its political implications could illuminate its function in the contemporary mediascape. Benjamin’s interest in both storytelling and mass-mediated political art could advance the understanding of storytelling programmes such as TAL. In addition, Benjamin’s theories, formulated during the early twentieth century, can be critically examined in relation to a modern form of storytelling that shares ties with both tradition and information culture. Both can be used as a means to examine and contextualise the contemporary preoccupation, if not obsession, with storytelling. What role do the media play in constituting a return, or continuation, of storytelling? What are the political implications of mediated storytelling? The first two chapters will analyse Benjamin’s writings and function as a framework for the discussion of TAL. The first chapter will discuss his understanding of the medium of radio, his discussion of storytelling and his concept of the aura of art. The second chapter will discuss Benjamin’s interpretation of the political potential of mass media such as radio and the newspaper. It will touch on the changes in the nature of the information industry since Benjamin’s death in 1940. The third chapter will discuss the role of radio in the United States in relation to audience participation. It will subsequently discuss the aspirations of public radio and contextualise TAL. The chapter will discuss several episodes of TAL to illustrate the manner in which radio functions as both a nation-building and polarising medium. The fourth Duindam 5 chapter will focus on the history and implications of autobiographical storytelling and thus contextualise the current storytelling hype. It will discuss TAL in relation to some of the concerns and possibilities of mass-mediated personal storytelling. The concluding chapter will attempt to answer the proposed questions. Duindam 6 2. Benjamin: Political Art and Auratic Art Walter Benjamin’s media career started in radio broadcasting. As media sociologist Jaeho Kang observes in Walter Benjamin and the Media, Benjamin was a “media practitioner before he was a media theorist” (13). Benjamin’s career on the radio started in 1927, only a few years after the first German radio broadcast in 1923 (65). He subsequently wrote, directed and narrated radio programmes for both Radio Berlin and Radio Frankfurt until 1933 (Rosenthal I; Kang 67). The majority of Benjamin’s radio broadcasts were children’s