Page 25 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 25
benjamin‘s notion of mass culture and the question of emancipation
is brought about with only the interactive communication technology. The
changes of the perception, indicated by Benjamin, have gone much further.
I am talking about changes that are bringing us from “grapho-sphere to
video-sphere” (Debray, 1994).
Of course, the media only makes up part, important as it may be, of
the complex realities of the world approaching the much advertised “infor-
mation age society”. The virtual in this context increasingly becomes “one
of the main vectors of a production of reality” (Levy, 1995: p. 17). The in-
fluences of it are integrated into the very notion of reality, which becomes
all but simplified because of them. Simultaneously we cannot overlook the
fact that education is expanding on a mass scale as never before. In spite of
the many doubts concerning its real accessibility and its quality, the heated
debates on education expose the fact that education is a principal route to
life in the media or information society for individuals as well as for whole
communities – no matter how they are called: society, nation or network.
Little more than simple literacy had been required in Benjamin‘s times for
members of society to participate in the consumption of goods provided by
cultural industry. It is impossible to deny that a level of required literacy for
the average citizen has risen dramatically. The changes of everyday life in
a society determined by mass culture may still be apprehended in a critical
manner, thus giving way to doubts of how much emancipation they actual-
ly bring. As it has been already discussed, the notion of leisure, for example,
is submitted to changes. The idyllic representation of leisure, as represented
for instance in Jean Renoir‘s film A Day in the Country, belongs to a world
which has ceased to exist. “Today, to mention leisure evokes images of re-
tirement communities or television viewing. Leisure has lost its meaning,
succumbing to the general fetish of leisure in a consumer society. In Amer-
ica leisure usually means buying or doing or watching something” (Jacoby,
1994: p. 15). One may agree with such an assumption, but it is obvious that
such a change in the notion of leisure is opposed to the changes in the no-
tion of work that happens in these times of cultural transition.
We could go on and on with our coming to terms with the meanings of
contemporary mass culture, but where does this leave the question of eman-
cipation? Maybe Benjamin suggested in vague terms that the emancipation
comes with the abolition of capitalism, yet, on the other hand his analysis
points to a dialectical comprehension of the notion of emancipation. With
such a viewpoint, his perfectly articulated difference in the comprehension
of mass culture, as compared to the prevailing views of the time, assumes
23
is brought about with only the interactive communication technology. The
changes of the perception, indicated by Benjamin, have gone much further.
I am talking about changes that are bringing us from “grapho-sphere to
video-sphere” (Debray, 1994).
Of course, the media only makes up part, important as it may be, of
the complex realities of the world approaching the much advertised “infor-
mation age society”. The virtual in this context increasingly becomes “one
of the main vectors of a production of reality” (Levy, 1995: p. 17). The in-
fluences of it are integrated into the very notion of reality, which becomes
all but simplified because of them. Simultaneously we cannot overlook the
fact that education is expanding on a mass scale as never before. In spite of
the many doubts concerning its real accessibility and its quality, the heated
debates on education expose the fact that education is a principal route to
life in the media or information society for individuals as well as for whole
communities – no matter how they are called: society, nation or network.
Little more than simple literacy had been required in Benjamin‘s times for
members of society to participate in the consumption of goods provided by
cultural industry. It is impossible to deny that a level of required literacy for
the average citizen has risen dramatically. The changes of everyday life in
a society determined by mass culture may still be apprehended in a critical
manner, thus giving way to doubts of how much emancipation they actual-
ly bring. As it has been already discussed, the notion of leisure, for example,
is submitted to changes. The idyllic representation of leisure, as represented
for instance in Jean Renoir‘s film A Day in the Country, belongs to a world
which has ceased to exist. “Today, to mention leisure evokes images of re-
tirement communities or television viewing. Leisure has lost its meaning,
succumbing to the general fetish of leisure in a consumer society. In Amer-
ica leisure usually means buying or doing or watching something” (Jacoby,
1994: p. 15). One may agree with such an assumption, but it is obvious that
such a change in the notion of leisure is opposed to the changes in the no-
tion of work that happens in these times of cultural transition.
We could go on and on with our coming to terms with the meanings of
contemporary mass culture, but where does this leave the question of eman-
cipation? Maybe Benjamin suggested in vague terms that the emancipation
comes with the abolition of capitalism, yet, on the other hand his analysis
points to a dialectical comprehension of the notion of emancipation. With
such a viewpoint, his perfectly articulated difference in the comprehension
of mass culture, as compared to the prevailing views of the time, assumes
23
