'the work of art in the age of its technological ：在技术时代的艺术作品....pdf

The true is what he can; the false is what he wants. -MADAME DE DURAS! 1 'The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility SECOND VERSION When Marx undertook his analysis of the capitalist mode of production, that mode was in its Marx adopted an approach which gave his investigations prognostic value. Going back to the basic conditions of capitalist production, he presented them in a way which showed what could be expected of capitalism in the future. What could be expected, it emerged, was not only an increasingly harsh exploitation of the proletar- iat but, ultimately, the creation of conditions which would make it possi- ble for capitalism to abolish itself. Since the transformation of the superstructure proceeds far more slowly than that of the base, it has taken more than half a century for the change in the conditions of production to be manifested in all areas of culture. How this process has affected culture can only now be assessed, and these assessments mllst meet certain prognostic requirements. They do not, however, call for theses on the art of the proletariat its sei- zure of power, and still less for any on the art of the classless society. They call for theses defining the tendencies of the development of art under the present conditions of production. The dialectic of these conditions of production is evident in the superstructure, no less than in the economy. Theses defining the developmental tendencies of art can therefore con- tribute to the political struggle in ways that it would be a mistake to un- 19 20 PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, AND RECEPTION derestimate. They neutralize a number of traditional concepts-such as creativity and genius, eternal va