Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each consequence by whether Benjamin treats it as EMANCIPATORY or DANGEROUS.
Groups: Emancipatory · Dangerous
- Mass spectacle can aestheticise politics
- Art is freed from dependence on ritual
- Access no longer requires travelling to one place
- Images can reach audiences excluded from elite institutions
- A mass medium is available for political manipulation
Hints
- He held both at once rather than choosing.
- He was writing with fascist mass spectacle directly in view.
Show the answer
Emancipatory: Art is freed from dependence on ritual, Access no longer requires travelling to one place, Images can reach audiences excluded from elite institutions
Dangerous: A mass medium is available for political manipulation, Mass spectacle can aestheticise politics
Why
Both columns are Benjamin's, which is why reading the essay as a lament for lost authenticity gets it backwards. He welcomed the break with ritual and feared what a detached mass medium could be used for, and was writing in the 1930s with the answer visible.
Practise Photography and Mass Media
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
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