Rereading“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Rereading“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

在〈在機械複製時代的藝術作品〉一文中，班雅明(Walter Benjamin, 1892-1940)遵循馬克思主義的歷史唯物論，探討做為下層建築的機械複製技術對做為上層建築的藝術的影響。在他看來，機械複製技術對藝術的複製品，以及以機械複製技術製作的電影，將會衝擊藝術的靈光效應，賦予藝術以社會功能。可以發現，他提出了對於藝術自主性的批判，並且認為，機械複製技術將終結藝術自主性，其批判主要集中在自主性藝術與社會之間的否定關係。由於未嘗試調和藝術的自主性與他異性，因此，班雅明糾纏於法西斯主義與共產主義的對立。儘管如此，由於「靈光」一詞具有濃厚的宗教色彩，「靈光消逝」仍意味著對藝術的類宗教社會地位的質疑。

In“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,”Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) engages with Marxist historical materialism and examines the impact of mechanical reproduction as a substructure on art as a superstructure. For him, the mechanical reproduction of art, and the cinema made by mechanical reproduction, would impact the aura of art and give art a social function. It can be found that he criticized the autonomy of art and believed that mechanical reproduction would be able to bring it to an end. His critique focuses mainly on the negative relationship between autonomous art and society, which, without an attempt to reconcile the dichotomy of the autonomy and heteronomy of art, has become entangled in the opposition between fascism and communism. Nonetheless, because the term“aura”has a strong religious flavor, the loss of aura calls into question the quasi-religious social position of art.