文档介绍：Walter Benjamin Page 1 of 19
Walter Benjamin (1936)
The Work of
Art in the Age
of Mechanical
Reproduction
Source: UCLA School of Theater, Film and
Television ;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden 1998; proofed and corrected Feb. 2005.
“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 physical
component 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 Valéry, Pièces sur L’Art, 1931
Le Conquete de l’ubiquite
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 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.
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
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