文档介绍：The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Walter Benjamin
(1935)
“Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different
from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant parison
with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have
attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are
impending in the ancient craft of The Beautiful. In all the arts there is a ponent
which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected
by our modern knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space
nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to
transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps
even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.”
—Paul Valery, Pieces sur L’art, Le Conquete de l’ubiquite1
PREFACE
When Marx undertook his critique of the capitalistic mode of production, this mode was in its infancy.
 
Marx directed his efforts in such a way as to give them prognostic value. He went back to the basic
conditions underlying capitalistic production and through his presentation showed what could be expected
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of capitalism in the future. The result was that one could expect it not only to exploit the proletariat with
increasing intensity, but ultimately to create conditions which would make it possible to abolish capitalism
itself.
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The transformation of the superstructure, which takes place far more slowly than that of the substructure,
has taken more than half a century to manifest in all areas of culture the change in the conditions of
production. Only today can it be indicated what form this has taken. Certain prognostic requirements
should be met by these statements. However, theses about the art of