When was this essay written, and in what social context? What may have been some of the novel features of this essay in its time?
Why does Benjamin choose the quotation from Paul Valery to preface his essay?
What, according to Benjamin, has caused a change in the "developmental tendencies" of recent art?
What aesthetic notions does Benjamin believe need to be brushed aside? With what political views does he identify them, and why? (1167)
What effects does Benjamin hope will result from an understanding of these changes?
Do you think his optimism was justified?
How have the processes of reproducing art works changed with time? What were the qualities and effects of mechanical print reproduction? (1168)
What was added by photography? (1168)
How have changes in reproduction altered the relationship of art to an "original" object, and how has this changed "the authority of the object"? (1169)
What does Benjamin mean by "the aura" of an artwork? (1169; 1171)
What are the special features of film, according to Benjamin? (1170)
Is Benjamin correct in his hypothesis that the introduction of films will diminish traditional forms of cultural heritage? (1170)
What relationship does a contemporary mass audience wish to have with its objects of artistic interest? (1171) What features characterize pictorial reproduction in films?
What was once the relationship between art, tradition and ritual? Has this changed? (1171)
What is Benjamin's judgment of the motives for the doctrine of 'l'art pour 'l’art"? (1172) Its inadequacies?
What does Benjamin celebrate in the new conditions for reproduction? (1172)
In the absence of "authenticity," on what must art be based? (1172) What does he seem to mean by this?
What in his view are the different motives and audiences for art?
Do you think his comments on the nature of pre-20th century art are applicable to all of its forms?
Why are the images of faces the last vestige of the aura? (1173)
How does Benjamin interpret the need for captions on magazine pictures? (1173) The meaning of sequences in a film? (1173)
What prior intepretations of the significance of film does Benjamin dislike? (1174-75)
What are some ways in which the use of a camera alters the nature of the reception of drama? (1175 - 1176)
Why does the actor feel a sense of strangeness before the camera? (1176-77)
What compensates for this shrivelling of the aura/sense of the presence of self? ( 1177)
In what way are films revolutionary, according to Benjamin? (1177) Do you agree? If so, how can these be said to be properly "revolutionary"?
What aspects of his experience with "traditional culture" (e. g., his prior studies of Greek drama) may have prompted Benjamin to seek a new conception of culture?
What are some democratic possibilities of film? (1177)
What parallel features does he trace in recent literature? (1178).
What contrast does he find between European and Russian films? (1178)
What is the relationship of the viewer to mechanical equipment in movies? ( 1179)
What distinguishes the painter from the cameraperson? (1179).
According to Benjamin, how does the use of reproduction alter audience response to art? (1180).
What is meant by Benjamin's claim that painting can no longer present a collective experience, except when accessible and confronted by the massses (1180)? [What might be instances of such confrontation?]
Are there other forms of art besides painting which might serve the more democratic aims which Benjamin seeks?
What are some features of Benjamin's style and mode of argumentation?
Why, according to Benjamin, does "the same public which responds in a progressive manner toward a grotesque film . . . respond in a reactionary manner to surrealism" (1180)?
How has the film enriched our modes of perception? (1181)
According to Benjamin, art creates a demand which can only be satisfied later. What instances of this phenomenon does he give? (1182)
Does the spectator of film absorb it or contemplate its contents? (1183) Can this be said to be a passive reception?
What special features does Benjamin claim for architecture? (1184)
How do humans learn?
In what state of mind do people receive and criticize films? ()
Epilogue: 1
What is the relationship of Fascism to art? (1185;)
Is this ever true of non-Fascist societies as well?
What has been the result of mass movements on the largest scale under the present property system? (1185)
What is his view of Futurism? (1185) What distinguishes the quotation by Marinetti? Is it intended to be serious or parodic?
What according to Benjamin causes war? (1186)
What does it mean to say that "Fascism renders politics aesthetic," and that Communism politicizes art?
What do you think are some strengths of this essay? Which of its claims are more convincing than others