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Cinemaand Experience:
Benjamin,
"TheBlueFlowerin theLand ofTechnology"
Hansen
Miriamrn
In therepresentationofhumanbeingsthroughtheappa-
ratus,humanself-alienationhas founda mostproductive
realization.["The Artworkin the Age of Its Technical
Reproducibility" version,1935)]
(first
Concerningthemimoire involontaire:
notonlydo itsimages
not come when we tryto call themup; rather,theyare
imageswhichwe have neverseen beforewe remember
them.This is most clearlythe case in those images in
which -like in some dreams- we see ourselves.We
standin frontof ourselves,thewaywe mighthave stood
somewherein a prehistoricpast, but neverbeforeour
waking gaze. Yet these images, developed in the
darkroomof the lived moment,are the mostimportant
we willeversee. One mightsay thatour mostprofound
moments have been equipped -like those cigarette
packs -with a littleimage,a photographof ourselves.
And that"whole life"which,as theysay,passes through
people's mindswhentheyare dyingor in mortaldanger
is composedofsuchlittleimages.Theyflashbyin as rap-
id a sequence as the bookletsof our childhood,precur-
sorsofthecinema,in whichwe admireda boxer,a swim-
meror a tennisplayer.["A ShortSpeech on Proust,"de-
liveredby Benjaminon his fortieth birthday,1932]
179
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andCinema
180 Benjamin
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MiriamHansen 181
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182 Benjaminand Cinema
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MiriamHansen 183
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184 Benjamin
andCinema
7. I, 223, translation
modified.Zohn's translationobliteratesthe crucialdistinc-
tionbetweenBildand Abbild, obviouslyrelatedtermswhich have acquired an anti-
theticalmeaningat thisparticularhistoricaljuncture:"Everyday the urge grows
strongerto gethold of an object at veryclose rangebywayof itslikeness,itsrepro-
duction." Likeness, reproduction- same difference. At a loss foran antithetical
termin what follows,Zohn insteadconstructsan oppositionbetween"reproduc-
tion" on the one hand and "image seen by theunarmedeye" on theother,a free-
style additionto Benjamin's text.
8. Draftnotes relatingto the ArtworkEssay, GS 1.3: 1040; also see "Baude-
laire," I, 175.
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186 Benjamin
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188 Benjaminand Cinema
15. "On Language as Such and the Languageof Man," R, 314-32; 325ff.In the
kabbalisticframework ofthisessay,themotifofendowingnaturewithan answering
gaze is prefigured,in an acousticand metaphysicaldimension,in the problemof
translation,in the disjunction between the mute language of nature and the
multiplicityof human languages,and the fragmentary relationshipof eitherto a
paradisicallanguage of names. Also see "The Task of the Translator"(1923), I, 69-
82.
16. Perhaps deliberatelyunderstatingthe connection,Benjamin explains in a
footnotethattheendowmentof naturewithan answeringgaze is "a source of poe-
try"and adds that"words,too,can have an aura," illustrating thisremarkwithone
ofhis favoritequotationsfromKarl Kraus:"The closeryou look at a word,thegreat-
er the distancefromwhichit looks back" (I, 200).
17. Stoessel, 45. Also see Benjamin's comments on Baudelaire's "corres-
pondances" whichare not simultaneous,as thoseof theSymbolistes,but are "data
of remembrance,"conveyingthe "murmur" of a prehistoricpast (I, 182 and note
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MiriamHansen 189
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190 Benjaminand Cinema
Superimposedupon thehistorical-materialisttrajectoryofdeclineis
a less linear -though no less pessimistic- sense of belatedness,
endebtedto thetemporality ofJewishMessianism.The affinity of the
concept of aura with on
Benjamin'searlyspeculations language(see
note 15,above) suggestsanotherconceptofhistory, definedbythetra-
jectoryof Fall and Redemption.The tensionofdestructive and utopi-
ofradicalJewishMessianism20
an impulsescharacteristic could actual-
ly be seen as a matrixforBenjamin'sambivalencetowardsthe aura,
evenbeforethatambivalencewas enforcedbyrevolutionary intentions
and politicaldespair.Thus, because the aura as the necessaryveil of
beautifulappearance(schiner Schein)pretendsto a premature,merely
private with
reconciliation a fallen world,it requiresthe destructive,
"masculine,"demystifying of
gesture allegory,themortifying graspof
knowledge,of criticalreading.For only in a fragmentary state,as
"quotation,"can the utopian sedimentof experiencebe preserved,
can it be wrestedfromthe emptycontinuumof historywhich,for
Benjamin,is synonymous withcatastrophe.21
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Hansen 191
Miriam
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192 Benjaminand Cinema
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194 Benjaminand Cinema
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Hansen 195
Miriam
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andCinema
196 Benjamin
and temporality
indexicality in the filmtheoryof AndreBazin ("Historyof Image,
Image of History:Subjectand Ontologyin Bazin," WideAngle,forthcoming 1987).
On the basis of Rosen's redemptivecritique of Bazin, there are indeed some
interestingparallels between Bazin and Benjamin, although their concepts of
historyare worlds apart,owing not only to the latter'scommitmentto historical
materialismbut likewiseto a differentreligiousand theologicalbackground.
33. GS 11.1:205, 210. The second versionof theessayis translatedin Reflections,
333-36; the firstversion,translatedby Knut Tarnowski,withan introductionby
Anson Rabinbach,in NewGerman 17 (Spring1979): 65-69. In thefollowingI
Critique
relyon the first,longerversionunless otherwiseindicated.
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MiriamHansen 197
34. "On Language as Such and on the Language of Man" (1916), R, 314- 332;
"The Task of theTranslator"(1923), I, 69-82; 74; "Probleme der Sprachsoziologie:
(1935), GS III, 452-480; also see Rabinbach, "Introduction,"
Ein Sarnmmelreferat"
63.
35. On different directionsin graphology,among whichhe singlesout a more
recentpsychoanalytic approach againstearlierpositions,in particularKlages, see
"Alte und neue Graphologie" (1930), GS IV.1,2: 596-98.
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andCinema
198 Benjamin
festsitselfonlythroughthematerialbasisoftheother.Hence, theper-
ceptionof similarity is bound up withthe temporalityof reading,the
momentary and of
ephemeralconfigurations meaning,their"flash-
ing" into a constellation.
Yetthegrowingspeed ofwriting and reading
also enhances "the fusionof the semioticand the mimeticin the
sphereof language,"to a pointwhere(and herethe 1935 versionde-
partsfromthe earlierone) the transformed "powersof mimeticpro-
ductionand comprehension[...] have liquidatedthoseof magic.""3
Ratherthana theoryoflanguageas such,Benjamin'sreflections on
themimeticfaculty implya theoryofreading.The mimeticdimension
ofreadingrespondsto a levelofmeaningwhichRoland Barthes,faute
de mieux,has termed the "third" or "obtuse" meaning.37For
Benjamin,thesemioticaspectoflanguageencompassesbothBarthes's
"informational"and "symbolic"levels of meaning,whetherin ab-
stractphilosophical,political,psychoanalyticor narrativediscourses,
while the mimeticaspect would correspondto the level of phy-
siognomicexcess.As thereference to Barthesimplies,Benjamin'sno-
tionof readingwas not confinedto written material,but rangedfrom
the ancientreadingof constellations on the surfaceof the sky- "to
read whatwas neverwritten"- to a criticalreadingof the "natural"
phenomena of nineteenth-century capitalism.The medium of such
criticalreadingis language,to be sure,but the "temporalabyss,"the
cognitive disjunctionwhichpropelssuchreading,is morethana meta-
phoroftheaporeticnatureofall language.3s Whilelanguageand expe-
riencein Benjaminare intimately interlockingterms,theycan neither
be identified with,nor hierarchicallysubsumedby,each other.
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MiriamHansen 199
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200 Benjaminand Cinema
40. GS II.1: 311; I, 202; "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire," sections II and III;
"Madame Ariane," R, 89.
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Hansen 201
Miriam
thirdthing,
theimagewhichsatisfiedhiscuriosityor,more
assuaged
precisely, his homesickness[...] for
homesickness
in thestateofresemblance,
theworlddistorted a worldin
whichthetruesurrealist
faceofexistence breaksthrough.
[I,
204-5]
The distortion, as IrvingWohlfarth pointsout in an excellentreading
ofthispassage,"lies in theeyeofthebeholderqua identicalsubject."If
the"truefaceofexistence"is "surrealist," theonlyadequate mode of
representation is one of mimetic transformation, figurationor dis-
placement - the "distortionof distortion."4'
It is no coincidencethat the distinctionbetween similarity and
sameness again comes into play, a few years later,in Benjamin's
"Hashish in Marseilles" (1932). A physiognomicexperimentpar
thedrughad evokedin him "a deeplysubmergedfeelingof
excellence,
happiness" which was more difficultto analyze than any other
sensationhe experiencedin thatstate.Gropingfora description,he
recalls a phrase fromJohannes V. Jensen's ExoticNovellas(1919):
" 'Richardwas a youngman witha sense foreverything in theworld
thatwas the same [SinnfiirallesGleichartigein derWelt].'This sentence
had pleased me verymuch. It enabled me now to confrontthe
political and rational sense it had had for me earlier with the
individual,magicalmeaningofmyexperienceyesterday" (R, 142-43).
If beforehe had takenJensen'sphraseto underscorethe significance
of nuancesin an age of unprecedentedstandardization, it acquireda
differentmeaning in conjunction with his artificiallydistorted
perception:"For I saw only nuances, yet these were the same."
Benjamin attributesthis blurringof similarityand sameness to a
sudden "ravenoushungerto tastewhatis the same in all places and
countries,"but he introducesthis hungerby way of a metaphoric
operation,a double tropingof the Marseilleancobblestones(which
might as well have been in Paris) as the bread (loaves) of his
imagination.Towardstheend of thepassage,Benjaminrecallsa train
ofthoughtbeginningwith,"All men are brothers,"whoselastand -
he assuresus - "less triviallink"mighthaveinvolved"imagesofani-
mals."
When,soon after,undertheimpactofthedeepeningpoliticalcrisis,
Benjamin reaches the conclusion that intellectualson the leftcannot
"Image of Interpretation,"
41. Wohlfarth, 80.
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202 Benjaminand Cinema
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andCinema
204 Benjamin
herehas becometheheightofartifice;
thesightofimme-
diatereality inthelandoftech-
hasbecomethe'blueflower'
[I,232f.]
nology.
This passageis one ofthemostpuzzlingin theessayand itis notexact-
lyilluminatedby Zohn's translating of the proverbial'blue flower'of
GermanRomanticism, Novalis'"blaueBlume,"intoan "orchid."What
does Benjaminmean bythe"equipment-free aspectofreality"?How,
one mightask somewhatbluntly,does itdiffer fromtherealityeffect,
themaskingoftechniqueand productionwhichfilmtheoristsofthe
1970s were to pinpointas the ideological basis of classical Holly-
wood cinema?4"Firstofall, therealityconveyedbythecinematicap-
paratusis no more and no less phantasmagoricthan the "natural"
phenomena of the commodityworld it endlesslyreplicates;and
Benjaminknewall too wellthattheprimaryobjectiveofcapitalistfilm
practicewas to perpetuatethatmythical chainofmirrors. Therefore, if
filmwereto have a critical,cognitivefunction,it had to disruptthat
chain and assume the taskof all politicizedart,as Buck-Morsspara-
phrasestheargumentoftheArtwork Essay:"not to duplicatetheillu-
sion as real,but to interpret as
reality itselfillusion.""
Still,whydid Benjaminchoose, albeitwitha shade of irony,the
highlyauraticmetaphoroftheBlue Flower- theunattainableobject
of the romanticquest, the incarnationof desire?45I perceivein the
above passagean echo ofthe"distortionofdistortion"thatBenjamin
tracesin the workof Proust,of whichthe "dialecticaloptics" of the
Surrealistsis just a more contemporary, collectivized(and certainly
less memorable)version.Accordingly, "the equipment-free aspectof
reality"that even generations who have learned to livewith a declin-
ing aura and its false resurrections are "entitled to expect froma
workofart" seems to me linked,in whateveralienatedand refracted
manner,to that"homesicknessfortheworlddistortedin thestateof
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Miriam
Hansen 205
resemblance"whichProust'swritingpursuedto thepointofasphyx-
iation. Such filmpractice,however,would have to desistfromsub-
mergingthecontradictions ofsecondnaturein mythical imagesofthe
first,itselflong domesticated and enslaved, and instead lend its
mimeticcapabilityto "a world in which the true surrealistface of
existencebreaksthrough."
Benjaminhimselfmaynot have made thatconnectionexplicit(and
mightnot have approvedof it),yetseverallinesof his argumentsug-
gesta positionfromwhichthecinemacould be redeemed- forfilm
history, filmtheoryas wellas filmpractice- as a mediumof experi-
ence. To developtheselines,I willdouble backon thequestionofhu-
man self-representation whichI had mentionedearlier,in conjunction
with Benjamin's shortcircuiting of the iconic quality of cinematic
significationwith the politicalrightsof themasses.In thefirstversion
of the ArtworkEssay, Benjamin elaboratesin greaterdetail on the
relationshipof human beings and technologywhich, instead of
liberating themfrommyth,confronts themas a forceofsecondnature
as
just overwhelming as the forces of a more elementarynaturein
archaic times. This confrontation rehearsed,in the field of art,
is
wheneveran actor plays before a camera instead of the virtually
present theater audience: "To act in the stream of klieglights
(Jupiterlampen]and simultaneouslymeet the requirementsof sound
recordingis a highlydemanding test. Passing this test means to
maintainone's humanityin the face of the apparatus."The screen
actor has to muster a total and bodily presence of mind while
foregoing theaura thatemanatesfromthehereand now,thepresence
of the stage actor. At the same time, he or she knows, when
confronting the inhumangaze of the camera,thatit substitutes for
anothergaze, physicallyabsentyetintentionally -
present thatof a
mass audience. The latter's interestin the actor's performance
preexiststhe individualfilm,storyor characterportrayed:the actor
becomes a stand-in,a representative of theirown dailybattlewithan
alienatingtechnology.
Foritis likewise
an apparatus thatsupervises
[Apparaturl the
processbywhich,everyday,theoverwhelming of
majority
peopleliving inoffices
incitiesandworking andfactories
are
expropriatedof theirhumanity.In the evening,the same
massesflockto themovietheatersto watchan actortakere-
vengein theirplace, not onlyby assertinghishumanity(or
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andCinema
206 Benjamin
whatevermayappeartothemas such)inthefaceoftheap-
butbymaking
paratus servehisowntri-
thatveryapparatus
umph.[GS1.2:450]
In the second version of the essay, Benjamin comes close to
reversinghis argument,now emphasizingthe audience's placement
on the side of the cameraand admittingidentification withthe actor
only insofar as the viewer identifieswith the testing,critical,
impersonalattitudeof the apparatus(1, 228) -i.e. trimmingit to a
Brechtianconceptofdistanciation. Bracketingtheobviousidealization
at workin theearlier(thoughjust as much in thelater)version,I still
consider the unrevised passage significantbecause it recognizes
historicaland collectivedimensionseven in a more naive formof
spectatorialinvolvement, aspectsof fascination and identification
that
are not necessarilyexhaustedby the textualinterplayof scopic and
narrative registers."Granted,Benjaminhad everyreasonto mistrust
themasses' interest in thescreenactor,whetheritfuelledthepseudo-
auraticcultofthestaror redefinedstandardsofsuccessin thearenaof
politics(1,247) -an observationeven more to thepointin the 1980s
thanin the 1930s.Ifhe appearsto be takinga morepositiveviewin the
passagequoted above,he does so on no lesspoliticalgrounds.Forthe
rhetoricof New Objectivity and proletarianculturenotwithstanding,
thetriumphoftheactor's"humanity"is,afterall,a Pyrrhic its
victory;
power to move an audience is due to the it
negativereality temporarily
eclipses,the social and historicalexperienceof alienation.Hence the
alternativeto the cinema's mirroringand administering of reified
formsof identity is not simplya positiverepresentation of themasses
but,rather,a filmpracticethatwould giveaestheticexpressionto the
scarsof human self-alienation (Selbstentfremdung).
The mimetictransformation of such scars is not confinedto the
human body; it extends to the relationshipbetweenhuman beings
and theirenvironment-indeed, to invoke the more recent(and
perhaps unique) example of Claude Lanzmann's Shoah,the most
radical sight/siteof human self-alienationmight be that of an
environment evacuatedof humanlife.This possibility is adumbrated
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Miriam
Hansen 207
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208 Benjamin
andCinema
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Hansen 209
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210 Benjaminand Cinema
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MiriamHansen 211
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212 Benjaminand Cinema
53. "Erwiderungan Oscar A.H. Schmitz" (1927), GS 11.2: 753. The reviewof
BerlinAlexanderplatzis entitled"The Crisis of the Novel," GS III: 230- 36; on
montage, 232f. The functionof film,as of D6blin's novel, is similar to that
Benjaminascribedto theflaneuras "epic narrator"- a sharpeningof the"sense of
reality,a sense forchronicle,document,detail" (III: 194).
54. LetterfromAdorno to Benjamin,29 February1940; Benjamin'sresponse,7
May, 1940, repr.GS 1.3: 1130-35; 1132.
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MiriamHansen 213
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214 Benjaminand Cinema
is whatwasonceheimisch,
unheimlich home-like, the
familiar;
"un"
prefix is the of
mark repression.57
The pre-Oedipalwish can only surviveas repressed,as displaced
and transformed denialwhichforFreud,in anycase, is a
byfetishistic
defenseagainstthethreatofcastration. Benjamin'swriting seemsdriv-
en by a desireat once to reverseand to rehearsethatdisplacement, to
destroy the illusion
fetishistic while the of
preserving promise happi-
ness thatit allowed to sustain.His theoryof experiencehoversover
and aroundthebodyofthemother- as a memoryofan intensity that
becomes the measureof all cognition,of criticalthought.As he an-
nouncesin one oftheearliestsectionsofthePassagen-Werk: "Whatthe
child(and,weaklyremembering, theman) findsin theold foldsofthe
mother'sskirtthathe held on to - that'swhatthesepages should
contain" (K2,2). Yet even this rare referenceto the mother'sbody
succumbsto fetishistic mediation- memoryresidesin the fabricof
the cloth- and thusrefersus to the sectionon fashion(Konvolut B);
here fetishismis explicitlylinked to death, the "sex appeal of the
inorganic"which guides the senses throughthe "landscape of the
[female]body" (B3,8; B9,1). The image of the mother'sbody, as
disturbingto Benjamin as to patriarchaldiscourse in general,
shortcircuitsdesireand mortality - ofwhichcastration is perhapsthe
mostpowerfulmetaphor.
More often, therefore,the source of anxiety and fetishistic
displacement remains textually unacknowledged (or ironically
distanced):threatand promiseof thepre-Oedipalwishare in a sense
re-fetishized,held in a semi-repressiveabeyancewhichallowshim to
garnerthereflections ofitspsychic,aestheticand experientialintensity.
This complexstrategy ofallusionand evasionis nowhereas evidentas
in Benjamin'sconceptofthegaze, pitchedbetweenauraticvisionand
the historicalreorganization In a note to his essayon
of subjectivity.
themimeticfaculty (1935),Benjaminspeculateson theconnectionbe-
tweentheaura and astrology: "Are notthestarswiththeirdistantgaze
theUrphdnomen oftheaura? Can we concludethatthegaze was thefirst
mentorof the mimeticfaculty?"(GS 11.3:958) Again,a prehistoric,
phylogeneticperspectiveis offeredinsteadof a more obvious one,
namely,the constitutionof the gaze in the relationshipbetween
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Miriam
Hansen 215
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216 Benjaminand Cinema
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218 Benjamin
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Hansen 219
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andCinema
220 Benjamin
67. Stoessel points out that the repressedwhich returnsin Tieck's storyas
uncannyis the"forgotten"knowledgethatthehero's deceased wifewas actuallyhis
(Aura,138f.).Though Benjamin invokesthisstoryagain in his exchange
half-sister
withAdornoconcerningthequestionofforgetting, avoids anyreference
he carefully
to the incestuousnatureof the "mysteriousguilt."
68. Freud discusses the phenomenon of the daemonic double in his essay on
and theUnconscious,140-143). At a later point in the essay,
the uncanny (On Creativity
he reportstwo incidents- one autobiographicaland one involvingthe physicist
ErnstMach - illustrating the shock of seeing oneselfor, rather,mistakingone's
own image forsomeone else's, in Mach's case a "shabby-lookingschool-master"
and in his personal case an unpleasantlooking elderlygentleman(156). Doane
elaborateson thiseffect(whichin both cases is linkedto movement)as an instance
of thetrompel'oeil("When the Direction...,"44ff.).
69. Scholern,"WalterBenjaminand His Angel" (1972), in OnJewsandJudaism in
Crisis(New York: SchockenBooks, 1976), 198-236; 236. Also see Scholern'sWalter
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222 Benjamin
andCinema
havebeen in questioningBenjamin'spoliticalillusionsconcerningthe
self-organization of theproletariat, he underratedhis friend'sinsights
intomass psychology. The bourgeoistaboo on sexuality, as Benjamin
argues in another context, has imposedparticular forms of repression
upon the masses,therebyfostering the developmentof sadisticand
masochisticcomplexeswhichcould in turnbe used forpurposesof
domination.72 Thus, while references to Disneyin the Passagen-Werk
stressthe utopian content,albeit weakened and repressed,of the
collectivefantasy, theArtwork EssayreadsthefigureofMickeyMouse
more specifically in termsof the politicalconstellationof the 1930s.
Giventhetechnologically enhanceddangerofmass psychosis,certain
filmsmay functionas a kind of psychicvaccination:hyperbolizing
sadisticphantasiesand masochisticparanoia,theyallowtheirviewersa
prematureand therapeuticactingout throughcollectivelaughter.In
this historicalconstellation, MickeyMouse joins the traditionof the
Americanslapstickfilm,up to and includingChaplin,and as withthe
latterBenjaminneverforgetsthat"the laughter[thesefilms]provoke
hoversoveran abyssof horror."73
Benjamin'sreflections on MickeyMouse, cutfromthefinalversion
on Adorno's advice, are remarkableespeciallyin comparisonwith
Horkheimerand Adorno's indictmentof Donald Duck in their
chapteron the "CultureIndustry"in Dialectic ofEnlightenment (1944).
Much as the Disney films themselvesmay have changed in the
interveningyears, Horkheimer and Adorno's analysis of the
sadomasochisticmechanismsoperatingin "the iron bath of fun"
reveals a relativelyreductive,behavioristmodel of spectatorship:
"Donald Duck in thecartoons,liketheunfortunate in real life,getsa
beating so that the viewers can get used to the same treatment."74
of
Benjamin'sconception spectatorship is in theend more complex,
because he is lessinterested in a critiqueofideologythanin redeeming
thereifiedimagesofmasscultureand modernity fora theoryand poli-
ticsof experience.
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Hansen 223
Miriam
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224 Benjaminand Cinema
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