Walter Benjamin

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at the article 'The Art of Work in Age of Mechanical Reproduction' by Walter Benjamin. According to the paper, the article has justified the usage of mechanical equipments for the means of production of art works. The essay then goes on to discuss the duplication of art pieces. According to the essay, the promotion and propagation of art pieces through duplication has been a critical issue, and an issue of contention.

Outline:
Introduction
Debate
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Benjamin argues that experience of cultural imagery has been under dramatic influence of lithography and photography. The notion of originality relates necessarily to the idea of authenticity and to the work's authority, but with the technological revolution the issues of authenticity and originality has become irrelevant. Mass reproduction creates copies that possess an independence from the original; they can transcend the spatial and visual limitations of the original's physical tangibility and susceptibility to temporal and material's transformation with age and deterioration. As the art work's substantive duration ceases to matter, the art object loses its authority or its aura, the "unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be" (Benjamin Walter)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Walter Benjamin- The Art of Work in Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
• Esther Leslie- Walter Benjamin: Overpowering Conformism.

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• Analytical Essay # 41523 : "Walter Benjamin and Tragedy"

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