The
first four chapters of Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction" relate to the changing social function of art and
the loss of the aura
in the age of changing reproduction technologies. As a Marxist, Benjamin view
changes in art as indications of changes in the economical base of material
power relations. This is why Benjamin employs the theory of dialectical materialism in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" for the sake of analyzing the changes that art goes through
in the 20th century.
Walter
Benjamin describes the uses of new forms of art as a dialectic struggle between
new forms of cultural production. He contradicts fascist uses of art to
revolutionary uses of art through two aphorisms: the fascist tactics are
characterized by the aestheticization of politics while the communist
counter-reaction is characterized by the politicization of the aesthetics.
Benjamin himself is of course all for the politicization of art and "The
Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" is essentially an
attempt to point to art's revolutionary potential.
An
interesting point raised by Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction" is the relations between capitalism and fascism.
Capitalism and fascism meet at the point of alienation. Marx held that under capitalism
the worker is alienated from his own products of work. In fascism this
alienation is radicalized by the complete deletion of the individual function.
The epitome of fascism according to Benjamin is the aestheticization of war
which turns violence into an aesthetic product. This augments alienation since
humanity can now joyfully witness its own destruction. People's alienation from
their own products blinds them from seeing how these products bear their doom.
The aestheticised war turns it away from the political realm into the realm of
art where it can be consumed rather than discussed.
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