ABSTRACT
Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher whose writings on capitalism's effects on art, politics, and social life remain vitally important today. Benjamin wrote the first version of "The Work of Art" towards the end of 1935 while living in Paris, where he had been forced to move after the Nazis came to power and took away his German citizenship. In "The Work of Art", Benjamin argues that the concepts emphasized by traditional art criticism, such as "creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery", are outdated. Benjamin proposes a series of alternative concepts through which to understand art's reception in the age of the new technologies, and through which to identify art's revolutionary potential. Beyond academia, "The Work of Art" has relevance to anyone attempting to make sense of the polarization and fragmentation of political discourse in recent times and the effects of new media and art on public life.
