The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935, German: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit), by Walter Benjamin, is an essay of cultural criticism of great intellectual influence in the fields of art history, cultural studies, media theory, and architectural theory.
Written in the time of the Nazi Government of Germany (1933–45), Benjamin produced a theory of art “useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art.”
That, in the age of mechanical reproduction, the absence of traditional and ritualistic value, art would inherently be based on the practice of politics.
Benjamin published three versions of “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, the German-language original in 1935; the French edition in 1936; and the final version in 1939, from which English translations are derived.
