Thoughts on Film: Critically engaging with both Adorno and Benjamin

Educational Philosophy and Theory 47 (6):622-637 (2014)
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Abstract

There is a traditional debate in analytic aesthetics that surrounds the classification of film as Art. While much philosophy devoted to considering film has now moved beyond this debate and accepts film as a mass art, a subcategory of Art proper, it is worth reconsidering the criticism of film pre-Deleuze. Much of the criticism of film as pseudo-art is expressed in moral terms. Adorno, for example, critiques film as ‘mass-cult’, mass-produced culture which presents a ‘flattened’ version of reality. Adorno worries about the passivity encouraged in viewers. Films are narrative artworks, received by an audience in a context, making the focus on the reception of the work important. The dialogue held between Adorno and Walter Benjamin post-Second World War is interesting because, between them, they consider both the possible positive emancipatory and negative politicization effects of film as a mass produced and distributed storytelling medium. Reading Adorno alongside Benjamin is a way to highlight the role of the critical thinker who receives the film. Arguing that the critical thinker is a valuable citizen, this paper focuses on the value of critical thinking in the reception of cinematic artworks. It achieves this by reconsidering Adorno and Benjamin’s theories of mass art.

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Author's Profile

Laura D'Olimpio
University of Birmingham

References found in this work

The principles of art.R. G. Collingwood - 1938 - New York,: Oxford University Press.
The Principles of Art.R. G. Collingwood - 1938 - New York,: Oxford University Press USA.
The Principles of Art.R. G. Collingwood - 1938 - Philosophy 13 (52):492-496.
Prisms.Theodor W. Adorno (ed.) - 1981 - MIT Press.
A Philosophy of Mass Art.Noël Carroll - 1997 - Clarendon Press.

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