Walter Benjamin and Art

Description

Walter Benjamin's most famous and influential essay remains The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Walter Benjamin and the Work of Art is the first book to provide a broad and dedicated analysis of this canonical work and its effect upon core contemporary concerns in the visual arts, aesthetics and the history of philosophy. The book is structured around three distinct areas: the extension of Benjamin's work; the question of historical connection; the importance of the essay in the development of criticism of both the visual arts and literature. Contributors to the volume include major Benjamin commentators, whose work has very much defined the reception of the essay, and leading philosophers, historians and aesthetician, whose approaches open up new areas of interest and relevance.

Andrew Benjamin is Distinguished Professor of Architectural Theory at the University of Technology, Sydney and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Monash University Melbourne.

"This volume of thirteen essays presents reevaluations of Walter Benjamin's short but influential essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."... Benjamin's influence remains strong, particularly within the disciplines of philosophy, history, aesthetics, and cultural theory. The strength of this book is that it gives a sense of the direction of current Benjamin scholarship from within those disciplines, expressed in terms that5 are accessible to the general academic reader."- Frances Robertson, Technology and Culture, July 2006, Vol. 47 "The most synoptic collection to date on Benjamin's important essay, this volume will serve as an excellent primer for those first encountering Benjamin's major essay and a fine summary and reconsideration of the essay for those familiar with it. Summing up: Highly recommended." - Choice * Choice *