English 2017 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Walter Benjamin, High Culture, Mstislav Rostropovich
8 Jan 2018
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Attendance will be taken regularly, and will be taken into account when final grading is done. Presenting your opinions/experiences as part of a response: there are no correct answers in the analysis of popular culture. For many theorists, technology is the crucial element in the genesis of popular culture: The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (1936) walter benjamin. In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, finally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. One of the most enduring cultural distinctions has been that of high vs. low, or high vs. popular. High culture is assumed to be difficult, complex, demanding, and, ultimately, deeply satisfying. It is assumed to have a moral effect on the listener: it makes him/her a better person, more disciplined, focused and restrained.
