Theme 2: Critical Media Studies (before)

Dialectic of Enlightenment

1. What is "Enlightenment"?

Enlightenment can be understood as the advance of thoughts, power and totality, used to liberate people from fear and to form human beings as masters. The main goal of enlightenment is to make people more sceptic and to disenchant the world. It sees truth as superstition and anything that cannot be calculated and utilized is supposed to arouse suspicion.  The aim of enlightenment is also to overtake the believes in fantasy and myths with knowledge. Human beings can free themselves from authorities (injustice, inequality and fear), because they have knowledge and can answer all the questions, which hitherto where answered by the authorities.

2. What is "Dialectic"?

Adorno and Horkheimer understand dialectic as the art of investigating and discussing the truth of opinions. Its focus is to find out the truth and to uncover false beliefs. They tie in with Plato's thoughts that knowledge is perception and one has to test which is the most truthful experience. That can only take place by investigating all the other possibilities that are not truthful.

3. What is "Nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text?

Nominalism is a theory that implies the understanding of physical and abstract things, which says that physical objects do exist and abstract objects do not. It concentrates on all the things we can see and does not question those things at all. Just as enlightenment says that anything that cannot be calculated and utilized has to be viewed with suspicion, myth and fantasy also do not exist regarding the concept of Nominalism. It is an important concept in the text, because being sceptic (enlightenment) is good, but also not questioning the society and trying to proof if something is right or wrong is the negative side of it. An example is the failed Enlightenment during the National Socialism, where Hitler based his arguments on abstract objects (e.g. one master race), which regarding to Nominalism cannot exist.

4. What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?

Myths were made up to explain all the things people did not understand and could not explain. The fear of the unknown is the main reason why people created myths. The main goal of Adorno and Horkheimer was to eliminate myths with real knowledge about things.

The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity
1. In the beginning of the essay, Benjamin talks about the relation between "superstructure" and "substructure" in the capitalist order of production. What do the concepts "superstructure" and "substructure" mean in this context and what is the point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective?

The concept of superstructure  applies to culture and religion, which do not change very fast in the society. On the contrary the concept of substructure applies to economy and politics, which do change in a faster way and defines a society and the future. Superstructure and substructure depend on each other and analyzing them is important to get to know how people behave. According to Benjamin changes in the superstructure can only be understood by having a look at the substructure and its changes. By paying attention to the changes in the substructure, the process that forms and changes the superstructure can be influenced and intervened.

2. Does culture have revolutionary potentials (according to Benjamin)? If so, describe these potentials. Does Benjamin's perspective differ from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer in this regard?

Benjamin says that culture does have a revolutionary potential and as examples he uses photography, which can have a revolutionary impact on society, and films, which can forward revolutionary criticism of social conditions. According to Benjamin culture has a revolutionary potential, instead Adorno and Horkheimer are saying that technology has a revolutionary potential.

3. Benjamin discusses how people perceive the world through the senses and argues that this perception can be both naturally and historically determined. What does this mean? Give some examples of historically determined perception (from Benjamin's essay and/or other contexts).

Perception can be both naturally determined or historically determined, which implies that perception is inseparable from the existence in space and time. It is not only determined by how people see things but also with all the historical experiences that people have perceived in their lives. Nevertheless, perception can be changed very radical by certain experiences. An example, Benjamin points out in his work is the roman art, how it changed and so it changed the people and the way of how they see art. Another example given by Benjamin is photography and how it can capture historical moments, which also changed the way people see art.

4. What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?

The term aura is described by Benjamin as a unique part of objects, which focuses on the authenticity and originality of a work of art. He defines, that all natural objects have an aura, because they are unique and cannot be reproduced. Therefore, paintings are supposed to have an aura, but photography does not, because it is just an image of an image and can be reproduced. Also natural objects have according to Benjamin shadows, reflections and distance which creates a unique aura.