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

WALTER BENJAMIN

Eprtrn sy Michael W. Jennings, Brigid DohertS and Thomas Y. Levin

ThaNstntnp nv Edmund Jephcott, Rodney Livingstone, Howard Eiland, and Others

THn BnrrNep Pnrss or Henveno UNtvnnsrty Pnn,ss Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2008 I

C O NTE NTS

ANote on theTexts ix p {tcriF iil Editors'lntroduction 1

N l. The Production, Reproduction, and Reception Jt of the Work of Art e/ t)V 1. The lVork of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Second Version T9 fi$i9 2. Theory of Distraction .55 gwt 3. To the Planetarium 58 4. Garlanded Entrance 50 5. The Rigorous Study of Art 67 5. Imperial Panorama 75 Copyright O 2008 by the President and Fellows ofHarvard College 7. TheTelephone 77 All rights reserved 8. The Author as Producer 79 Printed in the United States of America 9. Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century 96 Additional copyright notices appear on pages 425426,which 10. Eduard Fuchs, Collector and Historian t16 constitute an extension of the copyright page. 11. Review of Sternberger's Panorama 1s8

Benian'rin, Valter, 1 892-1. 940. ll. Script, lmage, Script-lmage [Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit. English] 't71 'Ihe work of art in the age of its technological reproducibilitS 12. Attested Auditor of Books and other writings on media / \Talter Benjamin; 13. These Surfaces for Rent 173 edited by Michael !0V. Brigid DohertS and Thomas Y. Jennings, Levin; 14. The Antinomies of Allegorical Exegesis 175 translated by Edmund . . . al.l.-lst ed. Jephcott [et 15. The Ruin 180 ,,.;;Jil;.,. 15. Dismemberment of Language 187 ISBN-13: 978-O-674-024a5-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 17. Graphology Old and New 192 1. Art and society. 2. Photography of art. 3. Mass media-Philosophy. 4. Arts, Modern-20th century-Philosophy. 5. Benjamin, ![alter, 1892-1940- lll. Painting and Graphics knowledge-Mass media. 5. Benjamin, S?alter, 1892-194O-Translations into English. 18. Painting and the Graphic Arts 21,9 I. Jennings, Michael William. IL Doherty, Brigid. III. Levin, Thomas Y. 19. On Painting, or Sign and Mark 22t IV. Jephcott, Edmund. V. Title. \World N72.S6B413 2008 20. A Glimpse into the of Children's Books 226 302.23-dc22 2008004494 21. Dream Kitsch 236 'rf

i

],r. toor,rn Nights on then'". a";".t. 240 ILLUSTRATIONS 23. Chambermaids' Romances of the Past Century 243 24. Antoine Wiertz: Thoughts and Visions of a Severed Head 249 25. Some Remarks on Folk Art 254 26. Chinese Paintings at the Bibliothbque Nationale 257

lV. Photography 27. News about Flowers 271 28. Little History of Photography 274 29. Letter from Paris (2): Painting and Photography 299 Paul Klee, Abstract Watercolor x95 30. Review of Freuncl's Photograpbie en France au dix-neuuiime Max Ernst, frontispiece to Paul Eluard, Rdpdtitions 199 'Walter sibcle 31.2 Benjamin, "A Glimpse into the Vorld of Children's Books," page from Die literariscbe Weh 203 V. Film 'Walter Beniamin, t'Cha'mbermaids' Romances of the Past 31. On the Present Situation of Russian Film JL.7 Century," page from Das illustrierte Blatt 207 32. Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz 328 Antoine Joseph'\Jfiertz, Thoughts and Visions ctf a Seuered 33. Chaplin JJJ Head 2i0 'Wang 34. Chaplin in Retrospect 335 Yuanqi, Landscape in the Styles of Ni Zan and Huang 35. Mickey Mouse 338 Gongwang 2L2 36. The Formula in Which the Dialectical Structure of Film Finds Illustration from Aesop's Fables, second edition 228 '229 Expression 340 Moral sayings from the book by Jesus Sirach Illustration from Johann Peter Lyser, The Book of Tales for Vl. The Publishing lndustry and Radio Daughters and Sons of the Educated Classes 230 37. Journalism 353 Cover of The Magical Red Umbrella )"32 38. A Critique of the Publishing Industry 355 Illustration from Adelmar uon Perlstein 244 39. The Newspaper 359 Frontispiece to Lady Lucie Guilford, the Princess of Vengeance, 40. Karl Kraus 36t Known as tbe Hyena of Paris 245 41. Reflections on Radio 391 Illustration from O. G. Derwicz, Antonettd Ozerna 246 42. Theater and Radio 393 Illustration depicting the notorious Black Knight 2.47 43. Conversation with Ernst Schoen 397 David Octavius Hill, Newhauen Fishwife (photo) l_77 44. Two Types of Popularity: Furndamental Reflections on a Radio Karl Dauthendey, Karl Dauthendey witb His Fiancte (photo) :278 Play 403 Anonymous, Th e Philosopher Schelling (photo) 280 45. On the Minute 407 David Octavius Hill, Robert Bryson (photo) 284 August Sander, Pastry CooA (photo) 288 August Sander, P ar li am ent ary Rep r e s e nt at iu e (photo) 289 Index 41,1 Germaine Krull, Display Window (photo) 29t Germaine Krull, Storefront (photo) 292 18 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION

13. Benjamin, The Arcades Project, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin The true is what he can; the false is what he wants, Mclaughlin (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), pp' 462- or, Dunesl 463, Convolute N3,1. -Meoeur. 14. Ibid., p.463. 15. Ibid., p. 530, Convolute Q1a,8. 15. Ibid., p. 845, Convolute H",16.

1

The \fork of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility

SECOND VERSION

I

When Marx undertook his analysis of the capitalist m

as it could now keep pace with speech. Just as the illustrated newspaper vir- derestimate. They neutralize a number of traditional concepts-such in an un- tually lay hidden within lithographS so the sound film was latent in pho- creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery-which' used allow factual tography. The technological reproduction of sound was tackled at the controlled wuy lurrd controlling them is difficult today)' wbat end of the last century. Around 1900, techrutlogical reproduction not material to be rnanipulated in the interests of fascism, ln follows, those only had reached a standard tbat ptermitted it to reproduce all known the concepts which ire introduced into tbe tbeory of art differ from purpases of works of art, profoundly modifying their effect, but it also bad coptured notu current in that they are completely useless for the fas' of reuolu- a place of its own among the artistic processes. In gauging this standard, cism. On the other haid, tb"y are useful for the formulation we would do well to study the impact which its two different manif esta- tionary demands in the politics n. Thc way in untouched, but they certainly devalue the here and now of the artwork. which human perception is organized-the meciiurn in which i1 ilsc-11'-s.- although this can apply not only to art but (say) to a landscape is And conditioned not only by nature but by history. 'fhc era of thc .rigra- past the spectator in a film, in the work of art this process moving tion of peoples, an era which saw the rise of the late-Roman arr i'crustry touches on a highly sensitive core, lnore vulnerable than that of any natu- and the vienna Genesis, developed not only an art diffcrenr from trrat of object. That core is its authenticity. The authenticity of a thing is the antiquity ral but also a different perception. The scholars of the vien'cse quintessence of all that is transmissible in it from its origin on, fang- school Riegl and vickhoff, resisting the weight of the classical traclition ing from its physical duration to the historical testimony relating to it. beneath which this art had been buried; were the first ro think of using Since the historical testimony is founded on the physical duration, the such art to draw conclusions about the organization of perception at the former, too, is jeopardized by reproduction, in which the physical dura- time the art was produced.a However far-reaching th.ir insight, ir was tion plays no part. And what is really jeopardized when the historical tes- limited by the fact that these scholars were contenr to highlight thc for- timony is aff..t"d is the authoriry of the obj..t, the weight it derives from mal signature which characterized perception in late-Roman iirncs. They tradition. did not a*empt to show the social upheavals manifested in these changes One might focus these aspects of the artwork in the concept of the in perception-and perhaps could not have hoped to clo so at that ri,.,re. aura, and go on to say: what withers in the age of the technological TodaS the conditions for an analogous insight are more favorabrc. And if reproducibility of the work of art is the latter's aura. T'his process is changes in the medium of present-d"y per.epti

VI V Art history might be seen as the working out of a tension betwccri twr> The uniqueness of the work of art is identical to its embeddedness in polarities within the artwork itself, its course being determined lry shifts the context of tradition. Of course, this tradition itself is thoroughly alive in the balance between the two. These two poles are the artwt>r'k"s cult and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for instance, ex- value and its exhibition value.t0 Artistic production begins with figr-rrcs in isted in a traditional context for the Greeks (who made it an object the service of magic. What is important for these figurcs is that tl'ri'y ale of worship) that was different from the context in which it existed for present, not that they are seen. The elk depictcd by Stone Age m:rn on tire medieval clerics (who viewed it as a sinister idol). But what was equally walls of his cave is an instrument of magic, and is cxhibited to others evident to both was its uniqueness-that is, its aura. Originally, the only coincidentally; what matters is that the spirits see it. Cult value as embeddedness of an artwork in the context of tradition found expression such even tends to keep the artwork out of sight: certain statues ol'gods in a cult. As we know, the earliest artworks originated in the service of are accessible only to the priest in the cella; cerrain imagcs of tlrc Ma- rituals-first magical, then religious. And it is highly significant that the donna remain covered nearly all year round; ccrtain sculptures on rncdi- artwork's auratic rnode of existence is never entirely severed from its rit- eval cathedrals are not visible to the viewer at groLrnd level. \X/ith tbe ual function. In other words: the unique ualue of the "autbentic" work of emancipation of specific artistic practices from the seruicc of ritud, the art always has its basis in ritual. This ritualistic basis, however mediated opportunities for exhibiting their ltroducts increase.lt is easier to e xhibit it may be, is still recognizable as secularized ritual in even the most pro- a portrait bust that can be sent here and there than to exhibit thc starue fane forms of the cult of beauty. The secular worship of beauty, which de- of a divinity that has a fixed place in the interior of a tcrnplc. A pmel veloped during the Renaissance and prevailed for three centuries, clearly painting can be exhibited more easily than thc rnosaic or fresco tvhich displayed that ritualistic basis in its subsequent decline and in the first se- preceded it. And although a mass rnay have becn no lcss snitecl to public vere crisis which befell it. For when, with the advent of the first tmly rev- presentation than a symphony, the symphony carne into being rrt ii tirne olutionary rleans of reproduction (namely photography, which emerged when the possibility of such presentation promised to be greater^ at the same time as socialism), art felt the approach of that crisis which a The scope for exhibiting the work of art has increased so eirornroLisly century la.ter has become unmistakable, it reacted with the doctrine of with the various methods of technologically reproclur:ing it th:11., a$ hap- I'art pour I'art-that is, with a theology of art.7 This in turn gave rise to a pened in prehistoric times, a quantitative shift between thc twci pok:s of negative theology, in the form of an idea of "pure" art, which rejects not the artwork has led to a qualitative transformation in its natul'i:..Just as only any social function but any definition in terms of a representational the work of art in prehistoric times, through the exclusivc crtrnhasis content. (ln poetry, Mallarm6 was the first to adopt this standpoint.)8 placed on its cult value, became first and foretnost an instrumcrrt <>f No investigation of the work of art in the age of its technological magic which only later came to be recognizecl as a work ol'art" sri t

It is not surprising that it should be a dramatist such as Pirandello appearance lErscheinung] in a mirror-a favorite therne of the ltornan- tics. But now the mirror image has become detachable froni tl-re who, in reflecting on the special character of film acting, inadvertently lBildl 'lo touches on the crisis now affecting the theater. Indeed, nothing contrasts person mirrored, and is transportable. And where is it transportcd? a more starkly with a work of art completely subject to (or, like film, site in front of the masses.2a Naturally, the scrcen zlctol ne ver for :t ttto- he founded in) technological reproduction than a stage play. Any thorough ment ceases to be aware of this. While he stands before the apparatus, consideration will confirm this. I'ixpert observers have long recognized knows that in the end he is confronting the masses. lt is they rvho will he execu(cs lris that, in film, "the best effects are almost always achieved by 'acting' as control him. Those who are not visible, not present wl'rile little as possible. . . . The development," according to Rudolf Arnheim, performance, are precisely the ones who will control it. This irrvisibiiity writing in 1932, has been toward "using the actor as one of the 'props,' heightens the authority of their control. It should not be forgotten, of chosen for his typicalness and . . . introduced in the proper context."22 course, that there can be no political advantage clerived fronr this con- Closely bound up with this development is something else.'I'he stage dc- trol until film has liberated itself from the fetters of capitillist e xploita- implied b1, this tor identifies himself with a role. Tbe film actor uery often is denied this tion. Film capital uses the revolutionary opportunities tire opportunity. His performance is by no means a unified whole, but is as- control for counterrevolutionary purposes. Not only does the cr-rlt i,f sembled from many individual performances. Apart from incidental con- movie star which it fosters preselvc that magic of the persolality w'hich char- cerns about studi

w XVI The technological reproducibility of the artuork changes the relation of The most important social function of film is to establish equilibrium be- the masses to art. The extremely backward attitude toward a Picasso tween human beings and the apparatus. Film achieves rhis goal not only painting changes into a highly progressiue reaction to a Chaplin film.The in_ terms of man's presentation of himself to the camera but-also in terms progressive attitude is characterized by hn immediate, intimate fusion of of his representation of his environment by means of this apparatus. on pleasure-pleasure in seeing and experiencing-with an attitude of ex- the one hand, film furthers insight into the necessities governing our: lives pert appraisal. Such a fusion is an important social index. As is clearly by its use of close-ups, by its accenruation of hidden details i"n familiar seen in the case of painting, the more reduced the social impact of an art objects, and by its exploration of commonplace mirieux through thc inge- form, the more widely criticism and enjoyment of it diverge in the public. nious guidance of the camera; on the other hand, it manages ,-o nrrur. u, The conventional is uncritically enioyed, while the truly new is criticized of a vast and unsuspected field of action [spielrauml. with aversion. Not so in the cinema. The decisive reason for this is that Our bars and city streets, our offices and furnishecl rooms, our rail_ nowhere more than in the cinema are the reactions of individuals, which road stations and our factories seemed to close relentressly nroun.r ,r. together make up the massive reaction of the audience, determined by the Then came film and exploded this prison-world with the dynarnite .f the imminent concentration of reactions into a mass. No sooner are these re- split second, so that now we can set off calmry on journeys of aclven- actions manifest than they regulate one another. Again, the comparison ture among its far-flung debris. With the close-up, space expands; with with painting is fruitful. A painting has always exerted a claim to be slow-motion, movement is extended. And iust as enlargement not merery viewed primarily by a single person or by a few. The simultaneous view- i ,,in i what we.see indistinctly any case,,, but brings t. light entirely ing of paintings by alarge audience, as happens in the nineteenth century, new:!:tO* structures of matter, slow motion not only reveals familiar aspects of is an early symptom of the crisis in painting, a crisis triggered not only by r movements, but discloses quite unknown aspects within them-aspects :, 'nwhich photography but, in a relatively independent way, by the artwork's claim do not appear as the retarding of natural m'vements but have a to the attention of the masses. curious gliding, u floating character of ih.r, own."27 crearly, it is a'other Painting, by its nature, cannot provide an object of simultaneous col- nature '. which speaks to the camera as compared to the eye. ,.otherr,, lective reception, as architecture has always been able to do, as the epic above .- all in the sense that a space informed by human consciousness poem could do at one time, and as film is able to do today. And although il;' glves way to a space informed by the unconscious. s7hereas it is a com_ direct conclusions about the social role of painting cannot be drawn from rpronplace that, for example, we have some idea what is i'volved in the this fact alone, it does have a strongly adverse effect whenever painting ofwalking (if fict o.nly in leneral rerms), we have no idea at ail what rrap- is led by special circumstances, as if against its nature, to confront the during the split second when a person actually takes a ,t.p. W. ui. masses directly. In the churches and monasteries of the Middle Ages, and liar with the movement of picking up a cigarette lighter ur. ,p,r,r.,, at the princely courts up to about the end of the eighteenth century, know " almost norhing of what ,."liy go", on between hancl and the collective reception of paintings took place not simultaneously but and still less how this varies with differenr rn.ods. This is where in a manifoldly graduated and hierarchically mediated way. If that has' camera comes into play, with all its resources for swo

3B PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION THE WORK OF ART: SECOND VERSION 39

formations and stereotypes, transformations and catastrophes which can so characteristic of film in favor of more significant aspirations- assail the optical world in films afflict the actual world in psychoses, hal- ich, to be sure, it was unaware in the forrn described here. T'he Da- lucinations, and dreams. Thanks to the camera, therefore, the indivi attached much less importance to the comrnercial usefulncss of perceptions of the psychotic or the dreamer can be appropriated by col- ir artworks than to the uselessness of those works as objects of con-

lective perception. The ancient truth expressed by Heraclitus, that those " i-emplative immersion. They sought to achieve this uselessness not least who are awake have a world in common while each sleeper has a world .by thorough degradation of their material. Their poems are "word- ;balad" of his own, has been invalidated by film-and less by depicting the dream ,rii containing obscene expressions and every imaginable kind rif lin- refuse. The I he same isrs true olof thelrtheir paintings,palntrn8s, on whichwhlch theytney molrnteclmor-rr"rted world itself than by creating figures of collective dream, such as the 1 tslustlc|uistic globe-encircling Mickey Mouse.28 ,,ib$tons or train tickets. IDThat they achieved by such means was a ruth- If one considers the dangerous tensions which tecbnology and its con- annihilation of the aura in every oblect they produccd, which thcy sequences haue engendered in the masses at large-tendencies ubich at as a reproduction through the very means of its producticln. Be- critical stages take on a psychotic character-one also bas to recognize a painting by Arp or a poem by August Strarnm, it is impossiblc to that tbis same technologization lTechnisierungl has created the time for concentration and evaluation, as one can bef

It has always been one of the primary tasks create de of art to a XVIII whose hour of full satisfaction has not yet come.3o The history of art form has critical periods in which the particular form strains after sses are a matrix from which all customary behavirlr toward fects which can be easily achieved only with a changed technical of art is today emerging newborn. Quarrtity has been transformed dard-that is to say, in a new art form. The excesses and crudities of alityt the greatly inueased mass of participants has produced a which thus result, particularly in periods of so-called decadence, kind of participation. The fact that this new mode of participLr- emerge from the core of its richest historical energies. In recent years, appeared in a disreputable form should not mislead the ob- daism has amused itself with such barbarisms. Only now is its im The masses are criticized for seeking distraction llZerstreuungl in recognizable Dadaism attempted to produce with the means of pai of art, whereas the art lover supposedly approaches it with corr- (or literature) the effects which the public today seeks in film. ion. In the case of the masses, the artwork is seen as a means of cn- Every fundamentally new, pioneering creation of demand will in the case of the art lover, it is considcred an object o[ devo- shoot its target. Dadaism did so to the extent that it sacrificed the -This calls for closer examination.:r3 Distraction and concentration AND RECEPTION THE WORK OF ART: SECOND VERSION 41 40 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION,

as follows' A person who is increasingly noticeable in all areas of art and is a symptom of profound form an antithesis, which may be formulated by it; he enters.into the changes in apperception-finds in film its true training ground. F'ilm, by concentrates before *o'k of u't i' absorbed " his corn- virtue ofits shock effects, is predisposed to this form of reception. Iu this ;;tk, as' according to legend, a Chinese painter entered iust masses respect, too, it proves to be the most important subject rnatter, at prciient, pf.r.l painting while b-eholding it'3a By contrast' the distracted waves lap around iq they for the theory of perception which the Greeks called aesthetics.3s absorb the work of art into the-mselves. Their to build- .n.o*p"r, it with their tide' This is most obvious with regard offered the prototype irf an artwork that is ing* Ar.hit.cture has always XIX the collective. The laws of received in a state of distraltion and through architecture's reception are highly instructive' The increasing proletarianization of modern man and the increasing for- primeval times' Buildings have accomp"n[d human existence since mation of masses are two sides of the same process. Fascism attempts ro M;; ;.r*, h"u. co*" i11to being and passed away. Tragedy begins brganize the newly proletarianized masses while leaving intact thc prop- and is revived centu- with the Greeks, is extinguished along with them' effy relations which they strive to abolish. It sees its salvation in granting days of peoples' dies ries later. The epic, whic"h originates in the early to the masses-but on no account granting them rights.:u The painting is a cre' out in Europe ut the end of the Renaissance' Panel have a right to changed property relations; fascism seeks to give adonoftheMiddleAges,andnothingguaranteesitsuninterruptedexis' expression in keeping these relations unchanged. The logical out- permanent' Architecture has ]f/ith tence. But the human".,etd for shelter is of fascism is an aestheticizing of political life. D'Annunzio, than that of any other ar;' never had fallow periods. Its history is longer nce made its entry into political life; with Marinetti, b'uturism; ancl to account for the r'dl and its effect ought to be recognized in any attempt Hitler, the Bohemian tradition of Schwabing.:r7 are received in,4 lationship of the masses to tie work of art. Buildings AII ,11ortt to aestheticize politics culminate in one point. Tbar one tactilely and opti. lWar, twofold mannerl by use and by perception. Or, better: is war. and only war, makes it possible to set a goal for mass tnt.:Ji::it..# on the grandest scale while preserving traditional property r,, il cally. Such reception.;;; Lt init'-':t :l ""J""'ood On the tactile attention of a traveler before a famous building' 1de'.th That is how the situation presents itself in political ternrs. In on the optical side' Tactile is no counterpart to what contemplation is I terms it can be formulated as follows: only war makes it as by way of habi ception comes about not ,o by way of attention [e to mobilize all of today's technological resources while main- ^"th of architectfr The latter largely determines even the optical reception property relations. It goes without saying that the fascist than attQi *fri.ft ,ponrul.or.rrly takes the form of casual noticing' rather of war does not make use of these arguments. Neve rthcless, form of t-tt?q tive observation. Under certain circumstances' this at such glorification is instructive. In Marinetti's manifcsto for For the tasks which shaped by architecture acquires canonical value' ,ial war in Ethiopia, we read: at historica,l turning points cann' -pterformed'the human dpparatus of perception cot years, we Futurists have rebelled against the idea that s'oiely by optical means-that.is' by uay of tactile anti-aesthetic, . . . \7e therefore state: , . .\)Var is beautiful becatrse- Th'ry orc mastered'grad'ually-tahing their cue from to its gas masks, its terrifying megaphones, its flame throwers, and through habit. more' the a tanks-it establishes man's dominion over the subjugated machinc. EvIn the distracted person can form habits' \0hat is proves that t iful because it inaugurates the dreamed-of metallization of the to master certain taskrl' a state of distraction first that is p ['body. V". is beautiful because it enriche s a flowcring mcadow with formance has become habitual' The sort of distraction to which orchids of machine-guns. Var is beautiful bccause it combincs by art represents a covert measure of the extent 19l tasks of apperceptio"' moreolljl barrages, cease-fires, scents, and the fragrance ofputrefaction into possible lo p.rfor* new 'War :1"t:' d is beautiful because it creates new architectures. likc il;;;#;d to evade ,,,th tu'k', art will tackle the most the masses' armored tanks, geometric squadrons of aircraft, spirals of snrol

'fh6ophile thetics] indicates that Hegel sensed a problern l"rere: "We are bcyold rht: rency by writers such as Gautier, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles stage of venerating works of art as divine and as objects descrving our wor Baudelaire. ship. Today the impression they produce is of a morc reflective kind" arrd rire 8.TheFrenchpoetSt6phaneMallarm6(1s42-1898)wasacentralfigrlreinthe from emotions they arouse require a more stringent test." notc.'['hc symbolist movement, whichsought an incantatory language divorced IRenjalnin's German Idealist philosopher Georg Wilhelm liriedrich Hegcl (1770- l3l1 1) all referential function. accepted the chair in philosophy at the {Jniversity oi l}erlin in 1 ti1 ii. i {ir lu;, g. In film, the technological reproducibility of the product is not an externaily or tures on aesthetics and the philosophy of history (dcliverccl 1820- i8-?.9) imposecl condition of its mass dissemination, as it is, say, in literature reltroducihitity of is based directly on the were later published by his editors, with the text based mrrinly (]r1 u()l(,i, pointi,'tg.'tu"bnoirgy The technological films of their production. This not only mahes possible the rnass dis' taken by his students.-Trans.) enforcesit. It dc'es so 11. The aim of revolutions is to acceleratc this adaptation. ltevolutiruir, r:r't: seminatiin of films ir.t the most direct way, but actually indiviclual wh<; innervations of the collective--or, more preciscly, cf{orts at innervltion cn because the process of procrating lre- than to r>bscrvc its conlection with fascism' The sirnultancity of thc two this aims at humrlrr led, ings from drudgery, the individual suddenly sccs his for' Iiir; ficlcl phenomena results from tlre econon'ric crisis. T'he same disorders which scopc ;rlay, of action imrneasurably cxpandcd. docs nor yet kiror,; iris in thc worl.t at large, to ru arrctnpt ro mairttain existing property |clations fSpielraum], t{c r-rp the way around this space. But already he registers tris clemands by brute force induced film capital, uncier the threat of crisis, to spced on it. [ior ilrc not more the collective makes the sr:concl tecl-rnology its own, thc morc l.:t:cuiy developrncnt of souncl film' Its introduction brought temporary rclief' also individuals belonging the feel how oi: only b.carre souncl film attractecl the masses back into the cinema but to collectivc little thcy have rcceivrrl that of what was due them under the dominion of thr: first tr:chnologv. trri otlrr,r because it consolidated ncw capital from the electricity industry with inter- words, it is the individual liber:ated by thc liquidat irxr of the lirst film. T'hus, consiclerecl from thc outside, sound fihn promoted nationai tccirnoiog,y productiou even who stakes his claim. No sooner has the second technology securccl irr irrilirrl ests; bur scen from the inside, it helped internationalize fihn . Benjamin re- revolutionary gains than vital questions affecting thc individrial*.-c1nc.,riorr.r more than before. [Beniamin's notc. By "the economic crisis," of the of love and death which had been buried by the first technology,--once r iir fers to the devastating consequenccs, in the United States and Europe, 6;r ptess for solutions. Fourier's wor]< is the 6rst historical evicience stock market crash of October 1929 '-Trans'l . ol this i :r demand. (I772.*183'7), 10.'Ihis polarity cannor come inro its own in the aesthetics of Idealism, whiclt [Benjamin's note. Charles Fourier ]'ircnch socinl th':- .o,-,f.iu., of beauty as somcrhing fundamentally undivided (ancl thris ex- I orist and reformer, urged that society be reorganizcd into self-corirair,:rl it- . ., ,t agrarian cooperatives which he callcd "phalansteries. " Among his rvorltr, li-r.: cludes anything polarized). Nonethelcss, in Hegel this polarity announces from his self as clearly as possible within tl're lirnits of Idcalism. \ile quote on the Philosophy of ,'. '. Nouueau Monde industriel (1"he New Industrial World; 1821) -1810). j{e ir; vorlesungen }ur Philosophie der Geschicite [Lectures ] ..lmages old. In those early days piety required ii an important figure in Benjanrin's Arcatles Prtjccl. Ihc rr'rnr .\pialt,trtttt.:,,t Historyl: werc known of :

irnages , this note, in note23, and in the text, literally rneans "playspar:c," 'si.rrrilc 1t tlrenr for wor:ship, but it coulcl do without beautiful images. Such ,ii,r' l f im"ge, thcre is also sornething'l 1fr1: iy, play."-Trans.] might even be disturbing. In cvery beautiful tl,iilllilEogdn. Atget (1857-1927),French photographcr, exiernal--although, insofar as rhe image is beautiful, its spirit still speaks to spcrlt hjs caleer in obscrr tor- ,,r,rrii,. rity making pictures of Paris zrnd its environs. IJc is widely recognizcri l:; orrr: the human being. But rcligious worship, being no more than a spir:itless Fine art arose in the church",' leading photographers of thc twentieth ccntury. See Benjanrin'i "l.itrie por of the r,rr.rl, i, directed thin1'. " " ' ' iltl,iillr, ^t' ^ ' ! ; 'iotttt. beyond the ecclesiastical principle." Likewise,.the History of Photography" (1.937), in this volumc. il-,o,,rgh arr has now *onc 'l'i:lliz''c .t r-, Aes" Voman of Paris (1923)-which Beniarnin refers by following passage from thc Vorlesungen iiber d.ie erthrtii [Lectures on ;i i,l:i,il}:rA to itr irrench ritlc, 46 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION THE WORK OF ART: SECOND VERSION 47

IiOpinion publique-was written and directed by the London-born actor d'autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author; 1921) and. [:.nrico IV and director Charlie Chaplin (Charles Spencer Chaplin; 1889-1977\. Chap- (Henry lY;1922). 21' Luigi Pirandello, lin came to the United States with a vaudeville act in 1910 and made his mo- Ir tur.no (The Turn), cited by L6on pierre-er.ri't, ..significat- tion picture debut there in 7914, eventually achieving worldwide renown as ion du cin6ma ,,, in llArt cinrlmatographiqu'e, vol. Z, pp. ti_tS;.' gn.,,l;r_ir,, a comedian. He starred in and directed such films as Tbe Kid (79211, The notel (1928), City Lights (193i), Modern Times (1936), and Tbe Great 22'Rudolf Arnheim, Circus Firmals.Kunst(Berrin, 1,932),pp. 176-177. tnthiscorrexr, Dictator (19401. See Benjamin's short pieces "Chaplin" (1929) and "Chap- certain apparently incidental details of 6rm directing .,"t i.n aiu.rg. rr,r- lin in Retrospect" (1929), in this volume practices on the stage take on adcled inrerest. F.r exaripre, th. t,, l.t 14. On the nineteenth-century quarrel between painting and photography, see the actor perform without makeup, "tt..it as in Dreyer,s Jeanne d,Arc. Drcyer Beniamin's "Little History of Photography" (1931), in this volume, and spent months seeking the forty actors who corlstitute the Inquisitors, rrirru- Benjamin, The Arcades Proiect, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin nal. Searching for these actors was like hunting for rare p-Or. Or.r.. ,nna. Mclaughlin (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), pp. 584- every effort to avoid resemblances of age, bu;ta, ofryri"g".*, iu th. 692. actors' (See Maurice schultz, "Le Maquilrage" "na fMakeup 1', utL,Art'cin6ma- 15. Abel Gance, "Le Temps de l'image est venu!" in LArt cindmatograltbique, tographique, vol' 5 [paris, r929r, pp- 65-ie-l u rhe acror thus becomes a vol. 2, p. 101. note. On Gance, see note 3 above.-Trans.l prop, the prop, in its turn, [Benjamin's not infrequentry functions as actor. At any rrr,r, it 16.S6verin-Mars, cited ibid., p. 100. [Beniamin's note. S6verin-Mars (1873- is not unusual for films to a'ocate a ,ore to a prop. Ratrrer than selecting cx- t921.) was a playwright and film actor who starred in three of Gance's films: amples at random from the infinite number available, let us take ,ur, ,r,.,. .r- La Dixiime Symphonie, and La Roue.-Trans.l pecially revealing case. A .l'accuse, crock that is running will always b. a iisturbon.e 17. Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed The Gold Rush in 1925. On Chaplin and on the stage, where it cannot be permitted its ,ole of measuring timc. Eu"n in A.Woman of Paris, see note 13 above. Giovanni da Fiesole (1387-1455), a naturalistic play, real-life time wcluld conflict witri theatrical ti'.re. Irr vi*v known as Fra Angelico, was an ltalian Dominican friar, celebrated for his of this' it is most revealing that firm-where appropriatc-cau reacriry m;rkc "angelic" virtues, and a painter in the early Renaissance Florentine style, use of time as measured by a clock. This feature, morc than many othcrs, Among his most famous works are his frescoes at Orvieto, which reflect a makes it clear that- ' characteristically serene religious attitude. nrmmayperro.;;.ii'":',T#ffi :i::TT:ff ..to ;;IlJJl#:1,:l.,1il.i 1.8. Franz Werfel, "Ein Sommernachtstraum: Ein Film von Shakespeare und principle, which states that connect the performance of an actor with an Reinhardt," Neues Wiener Journal, cited in Lz, November 15, 1935, object, and to build that performan.. urouni the object, . . . is arways .nc'f [Benjamin's note. Werfel (1890-1945) was a Czech-born poet, novelist, and the most powerful methods of cinematic construcrion,, (V. I. rludovki n, Firnt playwright associated with Expressionism. He emigrated to the United Regie und Filmmanuskripr [Film Direction a'd the Film Scriptl (Bcrrir, States in 1940. Among his works are Der Abituriententag (The Class Re- 79281, p' 126)' Film is thus the first artistic mediunr whicrr is abre to shrw union; 1928) and Das Lied uon Bernadette (The Song of Bernadette;1941,\. how matrer plays havoc with human beings lwle die Materic dem Menscbcn Max Reinhardt (Maximilian Goldman; 1873-19431 was Germany's most mitspieb]' It follows that films ."n be an-e*.e[ent means of ,orr.ri.tir, **_ important stage producer and director during the first third of the twentieth l p-osition' [Benjamint note. See, in English, Rudolf Ar'heinr, Jrih, as tlrt century and the single most significant influence on the classic German si- (Berkeley: University of California lr.rr, ilSZ;, p. 13g. Arnheim (1904_ lent cinema, many of whose directors and actors trained under him at the 2007), German-born Gestalt psychologist ancl criric, wrote ()n filrr, litcra_ Deutsches Theater in Berlin. His direct film activity was limited to several ture' and art for various Berlin ,r.*rpup.r, and nragazi.es tron., ttr. ,nia- early German silents and to the American movie A Midsummer Nighth 7920s until 1933. He came to the Uniied Statcs in 19i0 andtaught at sarah Dream (193.5), which he codirected with \ililliam Dieterle.-Trans.l for social Research, i :, rr".uu.a, uni ;: i;;;,;;;rry 19. Paavo Nurrni (1897-t973), a Finnish long-distance runner, was a wi ';r ll1jllllt_t.J.,Y-f*"tof Michigan. Besides his work on film th.,rry,'hi, publications inch:dc.rlrr at the Olympic Games in Antwerp (1920\, Paris (1924), and Amsterdary,; t o)' P i ca.s s o's u e r n a (1 " i e 62), and v i s u a t'r'h u i r t i,,ii(1'969)',La ! : :::: !:, .G * rtg (1e28). '' i'-' Passion{::: de Arc, directed 'r'heod.r ^': leanne by carl nreycr, rves 20.Beginning in 19L7, the Italian playwright and novelist l,uigi Pira released in 1928. Dreyer (1gg9-196g,),! oanish wrirer.director and 6rLrr (1867-1936) achieved a series of successes on the stage that made him lf icritic, is known for the exacting, expressive design of his {irms, his s,lrtle 11 famous in the 1920s. He is best known for his plays Seipersonaggiin '|1{r'icamera rnovement' and his conccntration o' the physiognomy'a,-,.r ,'nn",. ti,

& . L rr.rririsri@,_,w!:ffi!&al!*.

"''..q6:r@ffi:.i'-i6_": 48 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, ANO RECEPTION THE WORK OF ABT: SECOND VERSION 49 psychology of his characters. Among his best-known works are Vampyr works of art is matched by (1,937), Vredens Dag (Day of V7rath; 1943), and Ordet (1.955). Vsevolod a huge gain in the scope This space for ptay for play [Spiel-Raunl. (7893-1953), is widest i" fii;. .Illarionovich Pudovkin one of the masters of Soviet silent cin- been i; il; ;" ercmenr enrirery dispraced uy .f semrrrance has ema, wrote films-such as Mother (1926l;, The End St. Pe- and directed of raphy had 'r," "i"r*nr .loi."'in. positions *t occupied ar the expens" r.t pt ir,,g_ tersburg (1927), and Storm ouer Asia (1928)-that showed the evolution of fortified' .f.rirlr.fre.have.thus In firm' rhe erement.of b."n *rrriu"ty individualized yet typical characters in a social environment. He also pub- ,.mbla,r.. hlJyier.r"d irs prace ro the cle - lished books on film technique and film acting.-Trans.l to tt'"'"""'i,..n "tri'a Ram ilillii ii?;t,-if*: t::-t"tion "orogv. u2,"..",,.,, 23. The significance of beautiful semblance lschdner Scheinl is rooted in the age gets which' it tht to the heart of the g;r; .r;;ilil:. of auratic perceptiorl that is now coming to an end. The aesthetic theory of -:-i He says: "we are currently nating procesr. 1;r. u.rll-tttr' trir"*ri"f that era was most fully articulated by Hegel, for whom beauty is "the ap- "'i-.;- pearance lErscbeinungl of spirit in its immediate . . . sensuous form, created ****H*#li1'f+: l!ffi?ril;',r :j;;:; ^;;;.il,'::" as adequate (Hegel, part 2 chemistrv, *#:* by the spirit the form to itself" Werke, vol. 10, b..o,ni; pt' v, i..,' ;;;;i,,il.a. il'il'^ :'l:"*: "; [Berlin, 1 837], p. 121). Although this formulation has some derivative quali- ,...r.." tld .;il;;' .fi::'fi::.J ties, Hegel's statement that art strips away the "semblance and deception of ;'""i;i. ;' millennia to put : rH; in place, wherea, d.t-u1;, ;* i*; :n :; this false, transient world" from the "true content of phenomena" (l(/erke, to rhe ;;, astonist oi rt .. ro..r.rorr,'";: vol. 10, part 1, p. 13) already diverges from the traditional experiential basis 'n.ni ;#,x.* r"jr*;:; accord" (Charles Ferdinand ::o;;;:';] ::ruil, ;Il of this doctrine. This ground of experience is the aura. ir^"r, lErfahrungsgrundl Mesure, 4 fPeasant, Narr-rre [october 19 3s0.'rr-,.r" f , By contrast, Goethe's work is still entirely imbued with beautiful semblance *.ra.?i""' mension of play in th. ...."a-;:;::i:"'urtrmate",r,I1"" expression t. thc di- as an auratic reality. Mig,non, Ottilie, and Helena partake of that reality. rBen jamin,s;;;;ilJ:",,TTJil.Jf jf "The beautiful is neither the veil nor the veiled obiect but rather the obiect and *?,{}'*r,:;:i:** l.lli j.; "appearance,,, as well as .;*il;;..:,'.r:,.: iz its veil": this is the quintessence of Goethe's view of art, and that of antiq- w.;;;;;":*l:,?;fl,il;Tl, uity. The decline of this view makes it doubly urgent that we look back at nff f #,Ti ::; ff *iillll gaining new its or:igin. This lies in rnimesis as the primal phenomenon of all artistic ac' rer withwif -'iprritrr)ninspiratirn ir.rnfr.m his ctcorr- Greco_R^_o-Greco-Roman -tantiquiry;'a^:",t:::, ilil;,;; tivity. The mime presents what he mimes merely as semblance [Der r:'"1r tion d;;;ji; of beauty inform, i, .r.o Nachmacbende macht, was er macht, nur scheinbar]. And the oldest form oi i;,,; ;;.ilt#l;#il:TT:"if,;["ll; i h singlc material to work with: the body o{ the r'"i, lli; Appre, q imitation had only a ,YI;I" ti ce s X:::f::, b " i, :iith.* rceship;h i D : 1795),r 7 A \ y: tu"::i e r u) n d t s c i ; himself. I)ance and language, gestures of body and lips, are the earliest ii:,:: ?: i,;; i;;";:;J ft:,: ifestations of mimesis.-The mime presents his sublect as a semblance " i t #;il' ; lliiffi i X,!iX',1;,iil1,'1,' 9'ti i' " i-fli Jf ' ii:?;, italics I :l: Nachmachende macht seine Sache scbeinbarl. One could also say that ir6lective aclded) from his :., 'jr,Iecrrve Affinities,, Ine24_.1,e2s),," r qrrt !:'j|,'lt ;;;; il;. plays his subject. Thus we encounter the polarity informing mimesis. In ,;;ilil;::;; i;;,:;;:,'r!,,;,,;,r,!0,, interfolded like cotyledons, slumber the two asPects of press, mesis, tightly #r1i.i?ii,il*Ti:::.yiit;' r ee 6 t l?lito',ll,;; "".11,,,, ). p 3, semblance and piay. Of course, this polarity can interest the dialectician ;i,;": :' ;.;il'JnT,, 1.1 ll i;;i ru:.};H, l,*;,' J,,;Jl I ; i;, l; if it has a historical role. And that is, in fact, the case. This role is determi Igor n he wrore the textte*r u u;,r,.,,r;-ari;;rufitfi:1jffi[:lililu,!,?)lo,*ttn,:n":."tn"ser srrr"i"ri*'i,,- by the world-historical conflict between the first and second tech published "t novets on rural lifc ,hJ;*iil;;;r", l?J Semblance is the most abstract-but therefore the most ubiqui with altcg'ry._. of all the magic procedures of the first technology, whereas play is the

haustible reservoir of all the experimenting procedures of the second. y o:rio,r* a chc'narrge a n ge r,rol>rought reproduction:iil:il:ji1ff technology-i, ;.::,="^* "l "1n, u g r rt a,thorrr b<,'t that of play is foreign to traditional ;;;;";;;.:'* in politicslz:tJri',ti,',:)).: ther the concept of semblance nor ypcracies can be urao,"rl)it-1':-l-:-'.'."."0'e"l;. thetics; and to the extent that the two concepts of cult value and r e s e n t a t i o n o p r,; .p f o I i t i c i a n s. Dem value are latent in the other pair of concepts at issue here, they say oc rac i e, ; il;,,fi" "'.,fi ln person, before elected : :i:i r, But this abruptly changes as soon as these latter concepts lose r-_vv'rqlrvLD. T,herrc parlianrentpartranrent new. tI innovations":;"i:"::;::7ir!",::^":,::"i",h;,;:;:;;;;":';":;':;;'li;; in recordin,."^.r,..j.^T.lsentatives. isi, hishi, prrb-p,,b_ difference toward history. They then lead to a practical insigh -rervrirerr. rIUw cnablecnaDle 'byby an unlimit".runlimited number.,,*"^-8 ."quipment.now the ,p."L",speakcr tri,,, tr.bc that what is lost in the withering of semblance and the decay of the while he is speaking, byy an unlimitedunrimitecr arrcl r. bcr n,rmho-number shortry-"--"-l,lt"lt "f;;;. i;,,,;'iJfilil?;:,1,,1;,1: THE WORK OF ART: SECOND VEBSION 51 AND RECEPTION 50 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION' equipment' Parlia- uncommon cases when some outrage originally performed by the cclmpact presenting the politician before the recording given to Radio and mass becomes, as a result of a revolutionary situation and perhaps within itpopulated at the same time as theaters' ments are U".o-i"g but' the space of seconds, the revolutionary action of a class. The special feature the function. of the professional actor film are changing l''o''onty of such truly historic events is that a reaction by a compact mass sets off an like the politician' present themselves equally, the f.tnctionlf ;h;" who' for.the film actor internal upheaval which loosens its composition, enabling it to become airection of this change is the same before these *"ai".'iir" aware of itself as an association of class-conscious cadres. Such concrete tl ift"i' aimt'Lt tasks' It tends toward the and the politician, tt*-Atss events contain in very abbreviated form what communist tacticians call skills under certain social conditions, exhibition or.orrrrolffi.ru,r.f"."bl. condi- "winning over the petry bourgeoisie." These tacticians have a further inter- such exhibition under tt't"in natural iust as sports n'* l"f[i'for est in clarifying this process. The ambiguous concept of the masses, and thc tions.Thisresultsinanewformofselection_selection'beforeanappara. emerge as victors' indiscriminate references to their mood which are commonplace in the Ger- champion' the star' and the dictator tus-from which the man revolutionary press, have undoubtedly fostered illusions which have [Beniamin's notel had consequences for the German proietariat. F'ascism, by con- class consciousness, which is disastrous be noted in passirrg that proletarian 25. It should transforms trast, has made excellent use of these laws-whether it understood thern or io"" oJ tl"t' tonsciousness' fundamentally the most enlightened not. It realizes that the more compact the masses it rnobilizes, the better tl.re *t"t'' The class-conscious proletariat forms the structure ol ,f''t p"fo"'i'n chance that the counterrevolutionary instincts of the petty bourgeoisie will in the minds a compact untii"i-lr" -^,' "'itta"' this?lttt:fn-l:Y:^ill1l apparentlr,.,".::::: determine their reactions. The proletariat, on the other hand, is preparing ffi ;;;; ;;,., struggle f or l iberation, l,Hffi to be governellf:: .for a society in which neither the objective nor the subjective conditions already b"g"ttiI loosen' 111ea-ses t mass has actually for the formation of masses will exist any longer. note. Gustave ;;""';ion to action' rhe loosening "11,::::l'-'i'll [Benjamin's ffi#J;;;;;; the prol::"::l '[c Bon (1841-1931), French physician and sociologist, was the author of wor:k ,;ii;;;;ry. In the solidarity of masses is ttre *:: ,Isychologie des (Psychology of the Crowd; 1895) and other works.-- "f opposition between individual and mass foules ;;;i.,'the dead, "ttdinltttitui ,.Trans.l it cloes not exist' Decisivt is abolishecl; for the cNovalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg; the masses uftt' ftit, but in constantly drawing of th published in 1802. Von Ofterdingen is a medieval poet in search of thc t;1'' ro' them' alwavs one amons hundreds il:Hf#, t;;; ious Blue Flower, which bears the face of his unknown belovcd. Scc which ioosens, the.compac' -it,t-"i sands. But the same tf""""uggft an lmpel jamin's "Dream Kitsch" (7927), in this volume. that of the pettv bourgeoisie' The mass as .o*p..r,.t Arnheim, Film als Kunst, p. 138. note. In Englislr in ;;;";;; others have.maf;lt-::liltj [Benjamin's compact entity, *hith Le Bo"- und trable, The peny Film as Art, pp. 115-11,7. On Arnheim, see note 22 ab<>ve.*- ,fr"i, i*"r, psychology," is that of thc petty bourgeoisie' ;.1u,'; it is in fact onlv. a.mass' ;;;;" ; ?:t:::::::"1and refers to Fragment 89 in the standard Diels-Kranz edition of thc "t; antagonistic classes^tl":I of the bourgeoisie ::ffi.1il;;;;";.;*o of Heraclitus of Ephesus, the Pre-Socratic philosopher of the more i':'1":' ti tEj:-':::-:T:::::"Xl proletariat, the centuries n.c. On Mickey Mouse, see the following note. '";-,o;;;'j is indeed a determining factor' But il.'r'o#ti.;;;;;; ;;tchologv of these films should not overlook thcir fo"* the antithesis , a comprehensive analysis that very reason this tornf*tt -"' which havc petty-bourgeois{'I:t:lt:ti mass' the meaning. It should start from the ambiguity of situations obeys a collective ratio'lr the .alr",lfti.ft a comic and a horrifying effect. As the reactions of children show, corn- psychology is indeed a determining I tiveLrvc rrrurrrurrrmoment described -^-^-i,', -uSS its unmgdiated horror are closely related. In the face of certain situations, why for that reason this.t," compact mass with But precisely "^-."", 't we be allowed to ask which reaction is the more human? Some re- ,i."rf"r*raf,eantithesisofthcproletariancadre'whoseactionsare by the compact Itl y Mouse films offer situations in which such a question scerns jus- f, a task, however *o"ttnt"y' Demonstrations "r.a (Their gloomy and sinister fire-magic, made technically possible by thus always huu. pu.,ittttJ ott"rlit-*hether.theY 8t]: " once the],tl:'l^".,::* distincti film, highlights a feature which up to now has been present only co- tr.'. i"ttt"t'io' ffiil;;;;'* "if-p"'ervation' and the class-conr shows how easily fascisrn takes over "revolutionary" innovations ,fr. .o*pact (that is, petty-bourgeois) mass i*.* significance is is field too.) What is revealed in recent Disney films was latent in some hu, bttn tLo'iv macle' its operational ' *"r, earlier ones: the cozy acceptance of bestiality and violence as inevita- ;;;;" graphically illustrated than in thc clear.'l'his distinction io nu*ht"t'*nre 52 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION THE WORK OF ART: SECOND VERStoN 53

ble concomitants of existence. This renews an old tradition which is far from Zurich in L91,6, an international group of exiles disgusted by \forid !flar I, reassuring-the tradition inaugurated by the dancing hooligans to be found and by the bourgeois ideologies that had brought it about, launchecl Dada, in depictions of medieval pogroms, of whom the "riff-raff" in Grimm's fairy I ' an avant-garde movement that attempted to radically change both the work tale of that title are a pale, indistinct rear-guard. note. The inter- [Benjamin's of art and society. Dadaist groups were active ir-r Berlin, New york, I)aris, nationally successful Mickey Mouse cartoon series developed out of the and elsewhere during the war and into the 1920s, recruiting many nota- character of Mortimer Mouse, introduced in 1927 by the commercial artist ble artists, writers, and performers capable of shocking their: audienccs irt and cartoon producer uilalt Disney (7907-7966), who made outstanding public gatherings. On Chaplin, see nore 13 above. Thomas Alva lrciis.n technical and aesthetic contributions to the development of animation be- (1847-l93ll patented more than a thousand invenrions over a sixty-ycar tween 1.927 and'1937, and whose short animated films of the thirties won period, including the microphone, the phonograph, the incanclescenr clcctrc praise from critics for their visual comedy and their rhythmic and unconven- lamp, and the alkaline storage battery. He supervised the invention of thc tional technical effects. See Benjamin's "Mickey Mouse" (1931), in this vol- Kinetoscope in 1891; this boxlike peep-show allowed indivicluals ume. "Riff-raff" translates "Lumpengesindel," the title of a srory in 'rachine Jacob to view moving pictures on a film loop running on spools between nn clcc- and Sililhelm Grimm's collection of tales, Kinder- und Hausmiirclen (Nurs- tric lamp and a shutter. He built the first film studio, thc Black M:rria, in ery and Household Tales; 1812, l8l5\.-Trans.l 1893, and later founded his own company for tl-re productio' of projectccl 30. "The artwork," writes Andr6 Breton, "has value only insofar as it is alive to films. The Kaiserpanorama (Imperial Panorama), located in a Berlin ar- reverberations of the future." And indeed every highly developed art form cade, consisted of a dome-like apparatus presenting stereoscopic views r

tence in italics is: "seeks ro be buffered by intensified presence of mind sion of Futurism. Schwabing, a district of Munich, was much frequentcd by

l1 G e i st e s ge gentu artl.'" an s. -Tr I artists around the turn of the twentieth century; Hitler and other Nazi agita- 33. sections XVII and XVIII introduce the idea of a productive "reception in dis- tors met in certain of its restaurants and beer cellars and plotted thc ttnsuc- traction" (Rezeption in der Zerstreuung), an idea indebted to the writings of cessful revolt against governmental authority known as the Bccr Hall Ptrtsch Siegfried Kracauer and Louis Aragon. This positive idea of distraction- (1923). Zerstreuung also means "entcrtainment"-contrasts with the negative idea 38, Cited in La Stampa Torino. [Benjamin's note. The German cditor's <,f ,,Theater of distraction that Benjamin cleveloped in such essays as and Ra- Benjamin's Gesammehe Scbriften argue that this passage is nrorc likt:ly to (1932) dio" and "The Author as Producer" (1934), both in this volume; the have been excerpted from a French newspaper than from the ltllian ncws[)a- latter idea is associated with the theory and practice of Bertolt Brccht's epic per cited herc.-Trans.l theater. See "Theory of Distraction" (1935-1936), in this volume. 39. "Let art flourish-and the world pass away." 'tr'his is a play on the nrotto of 34. Benjamin relates the legend of this chinese painter in the 1934 version of his the sixteenth-century Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand I: "liiat iustitia et Berlin Childhood around 1900, in Benjamin, Selected'Writings, Volume 3: pereat mundus" ("Let justice be done and the worlcl pass awiry"). 1935-1938 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University press, 2002), p. 393. 35. The term "aesthetics" is a derivative of Greek aisthetikos,..of sense percep- tion," frorn aisthanestbai, "to perceive." 36. A technological factor is impo'tant here, especially with regard to the news- reel, whose significance for propaganda purposes can hardiy be overstated, Mass reproduction is especially fauored by the reproduction of the masses. In great ceremonial processions, giant rallies and mass sporting events, and in war, all of which are now fed into the camera, the masses come face to face with themselves. This process, whose significance need not be empha- sized, is closely bound up with the developrnent of reproduction a'd record- ing technologies. In general, mass movemenrs are more clearly apprehended by the camera than by the eye. A bird's-eye view best captures assemblies of hundreds of thousands. And even when this perspective is no less accessible to the human eye than ro rhe camera, the image forme (19241, which argues that fascism is the natural exten-