Page 19 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 19
Benjamin‘s Notion of Mass Culture
and the Question of Emancipation
The phenomenon of mass culture as such certainly is not a new fact in the
realm of social reality, especially within the range of social sciences and
particular interdisciplinary theories. At the same time, the notion, which
is related to this phenomenon, has been grasped by a multitude of different
concepts, many of which were and still are “intentional”. That is to say that
many concepts, judgements, descriptions and so on, which are confronting
the phenomenon of mass culture, try to place it in a context, from which
they derive some kind of emphasis, for example, regarding its social mean-
ing or the ethical or aesthetic consequences. A common denominator – the
meaning of the term mass culture - is related to connotations and notions
of (post)industrial or (post)modern society, as opposed to the pre-indus-
trial and traditional society. Apparently, “masses” (of people) have become
perceived as such only during the period of urbanisation and the “liberat-
ed” labour force. When “cultural goods” became accessible to the masses,
the phenomenon that we are talking about came into existence. In a histor-
ical context mass culture as an actually established entity is almost entirely
situated in the 20th century. Only from the viewpoint of this century were
its earlier manifestations traceable to a time of the development and break-
through of capitalism, along with the industrial and political revolutions.
Speaking in broadly accepted general sociological terms, mass culture is
made possible by a range of structurally interdependent components such
17
and the Question of Emancipation
The phenomenon of mass culture as such certainly is not a new fact in the
realm of social reality, especially within the range of social sciences and
particular interdisciplinary theories. At the same time, the notion, which
is related to this phenomenon, has been grasped by a multitude of different
concepts, many of which were and still are “intentional”. That is to say that
many concepts, judgements, descriptions and so on, which are confronting
the phenomenon of mass culture, try to place it in a context, from which
they derive some kind of emphasis, for example, regarding its social mean-
ing or the ethical or aesthetic consequences. A common denominator – the
meaning of the term mass culture - is related to connotations and notions
of (post)industrial or (post)modern society, as opposed to the pre-indus-
trial and traditional society. Apparently, “masses” (of people) have become
perceived as such only during the period of urbanisation and the “liberat-
ed” labour force. When “cultural goods” became accessible to the masses,
the phenomenon that we are talking about came into existence. In a histor-
ical context mass culture as an actually established entity is almost entirely
situated in the 20th century. Only from the viewpoint of this century were
its earlier manifestations traceable to a time of the development and break-
through of capitalism, along with the industrial and political revolutions.
Speaking in broadly accepted general sociological terms, mass culture is
made possible by a range of structurally interdependent components such
17
