Page 20 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 20
from walter benjamin to the end of cinema
as industrial production in series, individual freedom, general education,
leisure and, of course, the media.
Figure 1. Walter Benjamin (Wikipedia Commons)
Certainly, at this level of classification as we talk about the very exist-
ence of the scope of phenomena, which are marked by the notion of mass
culture, these positive attributes are not a matter of controversy. At the same
time, it is obvious that the notion of mass culture falls into a class of con-
cepts and categories that designate a complexity, and it is quite difficult, if
possible, to speak about “mass culture” without ascribing it to some kind of
particular meaning. The complexity of mass culture as a broad social phe-
nomenon has been expanding with the growth of prosperity and consum-
erism. With the rapid economic growth and due to a number of means of
communication, growing cultural production, etc. – especially recently – it
turns out to be ever more difficult to decide precisely what the extent of the
phenomenon is. Has for example post-modern politics become one of the
activities overpowered by mass culture? Is there any elitist or “highbrow”
culture left at all? However, very important and involving questions have
arisen in the cross section between mass culture, market economy and po-
litical democracy considering their structural interdependencies. There is a
crucial inherent difficulty in any discourse on mass culture, since the phe-
18
as industrial production in series, individual freedom, general education,
leisure and, of course, the media.
Figure 1. Walter Benjamin (Wikipedia Commons)
Certainly, at this level of classification as we talk about the very exist-
ence of the scope of phenomena, which are marked by the notion of mass
culture, these positive attributes are not a matter of controversy. At the same
time, it is obvious that the notion of mass culture falls into a class of con-
cepts and categories that designate a complexity, and it is quite difficult, if
possible, to speak about “mass culture” without ascribing it to some kind of
particular meaning. The complexity of mass culture as a broad social phe-
nomenon has been expanding with the growth of prosperity and consum-
erism. With the rapid economic growth and due to a number of means of
communication, growing cultural production, etc. – especially recently – it
turns out to be ever more difficult to decide precisely what the extent of the
phenomenon is. Has for example post-modern politics become one of the
activities overpowered by mass culture? Is there any elitist or “highbrow”
culture left at all? However, very important and involving questions have
arisen in the cross section between mass culture, market economy and po-
litical democracy considering their structural interdependencies. There is a
crucial inherent difficulty in any discourse on mass culture, since the phe-
18
