Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1937)

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	Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1937)

enbar

3-10-2007 11:33 PM

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primary_source, theory, art, criticism

enbar says:

The full text of Walter Benjamin's seminal essay from 1937. Another copy is at http://snurl.com/1cnup

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/beae4c87-7c60-4cbd-9eb6-4ef7982b8fe5/306E4D35-54CE-4C9B-9674-47B93D1E7FFB/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm" href="http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">pages.emerson.edu</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/pages.emerson.edu/img/0D415547-4B51-44CB-AA87-E0C2F3776D64" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm"><FONT size="5">by 
      Walter Benjamin, 1937</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm"><FONT size="4" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Arial Narrow, Kabel Bd"><A name="original"></A>Even 
        the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: 
        its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where 
        it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined 
        the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence. 
        This includes the changes which it may have suffered in physical condition 
        over the years as well as the various changes in its ownership.&lt;1&gt; The 
        traces of the first can be revealed only by chemical or physical analyses 
        which it is impossible to perform on a reproduction; changes of ownership 
        are subject to a tradition which must be traced from the situation of 
        the original. </FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pages.emerson.edu/Courses/spring00/in123/workofart/benjamin.htm">The whole sphere of authenticity 
        is outside technical-- and, of course, not only technical-- reproducibility.&lt;2&gt; 
        Confronted with its manual reproduction, which was usually branded as 
        a forgery, the original preserved all its authority; not so vis a vis 
        technical reproduction</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/306E4D35-54CE-4C9B-9674-47B93D1E7FFB/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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