Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Film / / Daniel Mourenza.
Walter Benjamin is today regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Often captured in pensive pose, his image is now that of a serious intellectual. But Benjamin was also a fan of the comedies of Adolphe Menjou, Mickey Mouse, and Charlie Chaplin. As an antidote to repressive c...
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020 |
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Place / Publishing House: | Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2020] ©2020 |
Year of Publication: | 2020 |
Language: | English |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (258 p.) |
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Other title: | Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Anthropological Materialism and the Aesthetics of Film -- 2. Soviet Film: The Giant Laboratory of Technological Innervation -- 3. Film and the Aesthetics of German Fascism -- 4. Charlie Chaplin: The Return of the Allegorical Mode in Modernity -- 5. Mickey Mouse: Utopian and Barbarian -- Conclusion: Benjamin's Belated Aktualität -- Bibliography -- Index |
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Summary: | Walter Benjamin is today regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Often captured in pensive pose, his image is now that of a serious intellectual. But Benjamin was also a fan of the comedies of Adolphe Menjou, Mickey Mouse, and Charlie Chaplin. As an antidote to repressive civilization, he developed, through these figures, a theory of laughter. Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Film is the first monograph to thoroughly analyse Benjamin's film writings, contextualizing them within his oeuvre whilst also paying attention to the various films, actors, and directors that sparked his interest. The book situates all these writings with Benjamin's 'anthropological materialism', a concept that analyses the transformations of the human sensorium through technology. Through the term 'innervation', Benjamin thought of film spectatorship as an empowering reception that, through a rush of energy, would form a collective body within the audience, interpenetrating a liberated technology into the distracted spectators. Benjamin's writings on Soviet film and German cinema, Charlie Chaplin, and Mickey Mouse are analysed in relation to this posthuman constellation that Benjamin had started to dream of in the early twenties, long before he started to theorize about films. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9789048529353 9783110689556 9783110738230 9783110696295 9783110704655 9783110704785 9783110704716 9783110704518 |
DOI: | 10.1515/9789048529353?locatt=mode:legacy |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | Daniel Mourenza. |