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WALTER BENJAMIN’S FILM THEORY: THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF FILM

Year 2022, Issue: 33, 399 - 422, 21.05.2022
https://doi.org/10.53844/flsf.1077738

Abstract

Walter Benjamin's film theory will be discussed in this study. His thoughts on art and aesthetic experience in his article titled “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” have remained relevant in the history of philosophy for a long time. In this article, Benjamin claims that with the developments in the field of technique, great changes have occurred in the production of works of art and in the relations of the masses with art. He mentions that as a consequence of the reproduction of works of art through technology, these works lose their aura and, therefore, the way in which the masses perceive them and their aesthetic experiences have changed. In this respect, Benjamin draws attention especially to the art of film. He contends that because of the lack of auratic and cult elements of film, the reception form of the auratic work of art, which invites the receiver to contemplation and concentration, disappears completely in the face of this art. According to him, the montage technique used in the film creates a shock effect that distracts the audience. At the same time, film brings things and events closer to us through the camera, making visible the seemingly insignificant things that escape our attention. In this respect, it allows us to experience the fragmented modern life in an integrated way. According to Benjamin, the film inspires the audience to take action. This politicizes the audience by encouraging them to question and critique.

References

  • Artan, E. Çiğdem. (2012). “Fotoğrafın Sanatsal Değerinin Ötesinde Kullanım Alanları Üzerine Bir Tartışma: Bilgi mi, Propaganda mı?”, Cogito, Sayı: 52, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2016). “Adorno’ya Cevap”, Estetik ve Politika, Realizm-Modernizm Çatısması, Çev. Elçin Gen, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2012). “Baudelaire’de Bazı Motifler Üzerine”, Çev. Ahmet Doğukan, Son Bakışta Aşk, Walter Benjamin’den Seçme Yazılar, Sunuş ve Haz. Nurdan Gürbilek, İstanbul: Metis Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (1980a). “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit”, “Erste Fassung”, Gesammelte Schriften, Band I-2, Hg. von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenh.user, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (1980b). “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit”, “Zweite Fassung”, Gesammelte Schriften, Band I-2, Hg. von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenh.user, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (1980c). “Kleine Geschichte der Photografie”, Gesammelte Schriften, Band II-1, Hg. von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenhäuser, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2018a). “Miki Fare Üzerine”, Walter Benjamin Kitabı, Haz. ve Çev. Tunç Tayanç, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2018b), “Oskar A. H. Schmitz’e Yanıt”, Walter Benjamin Kitabı, Haz. ve Çev. Tunç Tayanç, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2005). “Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz”, Selected Writings, Volume 2, Part 1, 1927-1930, Ed. by Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith, USA:The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2006). “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibilty”, Second Version, Selected Writings, Volume 3, Ed. by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, Trans. by Edmund Jephcott, Howard Eiland and Others, USA: Harvard University Press.
  • Bolz, Norbert, van Reijen, Willem. (1991). Walter Benjamin, Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus Verlag.
  • Bratu-Hansen, Miriam. (2012). Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
  • Bürger, Peter. (2017). Avangard Kuramı, Çev. Erol Özbek-Şeyda Öztürk, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
  • Clark, Tobby, (2017), Sanat ve Propaganda: Kitle Kültürü Çağında Politik İmge, Çev. Esin Hoşsucu, İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. (1997). Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy, Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Ferris, David S. (2008). The Cambridge Introduction to Walter Benjamin, New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Friedlander, Eli. (2012). Walter Benjamin: A Philosophical Portrait, USA: Harvard University Press.
  • Gilloch, Graeme. (2002). Walter Benjamin, Critical Constellations, Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Kang, Jaeho. (2015). Walter Benjamin ve Medya, Modernitenin Gösterisi, Çev. Deniz Gedizoğlu, KAFKA, İstanbul: Epsilon Yayıncılık Hizmetleri Tic. ve San. Ltd. Şti.
  • Kramer, Sven. (2013). Walter Benjamin zur Einführung, Hamburg: Junius Verlag GmbH.
  • Kreimeier, Klaus. (2005). “Benjamin und die Medien”, Walter Benjamins Medientheorie, Hg., Christian Schulte, Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.
  • Kreimeier, Klaus, Walter Benjamin und der Film, https://traumundexzess.com/walter-benjamin-und-der-film/ , Erişim Tarihi: 10.02. 2022.
  • Leslie, Esther. (2019). Walter Benjamin, Çev. Meryem Sena Özgüven & M. Murtaza Özeren, İstanbul: Dedalus Kitap.
  • Leslie, Esther. (2010). Walter Benjamin, Konformizmi Alt Etmek, Çev. Eda Çaça, İstanbul: Habitus Yayıncılık.
  • Lindroos, Kia, (1998), Now Time-Image Space, Temporalization of Politics in Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy of History and Art, Jyväskylä: SoPhi.
  • Lunn, Eugene. (2010). Marksizm ve Modernizm, Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin ve Adorno Üzerine Tarihsel Bir İnceleme, Çev. Yavuz Alogan, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Mourenza, Daniel. (2020). Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Film, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  • Müller, Inez. (1993). Walter Benjamin und Bertolt Brecht, Ansätze zu einer dialektischen Ästhetik in den dreißiger Jahren, St. Ingberg: Röhrig: Werner J. Röhrig Verlag.
  • Özbek, Meral. (2000). “Walter Benjamin’i Okumak II”, Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, Cilt 55, Sayı: 3, s.103-131.
  • Palmier, Jean-Michel. (2009). Lumpensammler, Engel und bucklicht Mannlein, Asthetik und Politik bei Walter Benjamin, Üb. von Horst Brühmann, Deutschland: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Recki, Birgit. (1988). Aura und Autonomie: Zur Subjectivität der Kunst bei Walter Benjamin und Theodor W. Adorno, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann Verlag.
  • Ross, Nathan. (2017). The Philosophy and Politics of Aesthetic Experience, German Romanticism and Critical Theory, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Van Reijen, Willem & Van Doorn, Herman. (2001). Aufenthalte und Passagen, Leben und Werk Walter Benjamins, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Reisch, Heiko. (1992). Das Archiv und die Erfahrung, Walter Benjamins Essays im medientheoretischen Kontext, Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann Verlag.
  • Rutsky, R. L. (2007). Walter Benjamin and the Dispersion of Cinema, Symplokē, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, Cinema without Borders (2007), pp. 8-23, University of Nebraska Press.
  • Witte, Bernd. (2007). Walter Benjamin, Çev. Mustafa Tüzel, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Wollin, Richard. (1994). Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, USA: University of California Press.
  • Wood, Michael. (2018). Habits of Distraction. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.
  • Zazzali, Peter. (2013). “The Role of Theatre in Society: A Comperative Analysis of the Socio- Culturel Theories of Brecht, Benjamin and Adorno”, The European Legacy, Vo. 18, No. 6.

WALTER BENJAMIN’İN FİLM KURAMI: FİLMİN POLİTİK ETKİSİ

Year 2022, Issue: 33, 399 - 422, 21.05.2022
https://doi.org/10.53844/flsf.1077738

Abstract

Bu çalışmada Walter Benjamin’in film kuramı ele alınacaktır. Onun “Teknik Aracılığıyla Yeniden Üretilebilir Olduğu Çağda Sanat Eseri” adlı makalesinde sanat ve estetik deneyime ilişkin ortaya koyduğu düşünceler uzun bir süre felsefe tarihinde güncelliğini korumuştur. Benjamin, bu makalede teknik alanındaki gelişmelerle birlikte sanat eserlerinin üretiminde ve kitlelerin sanat ile olan ilişkilerinde büyük değişmeler meydana geldiğini ileri sürer. Sanat eserlerinin teknik aracılığıyla yeniden üretimi ile bu eserlerin auralarını kaybettiğini vurgulayarak kitlelerin onları alımlama biçimlerinin ve estetik deneyimlerinin değişime uğradığını söyler. Benjamin bu bakımdan özellikle film sanatına dikkati çeker. Filmin, auratik, kült öğelerden yoksun bir sanat olduğunu, bu nedenle auratik sanat eserinin alımlayıcıyı tefekküre, yoğunlaşmaya davet eden alımlama biçiminin bu sanat karşısında ortadan kalktığını ileri sürer. Ona göre film, montaj tekniği sayesinde izleyicide şok etkisi yaratarak onun dikkatini dağıtır. Aynı zamanda film, kamera sayesinde şeyleri ve olayları bize daha fazla yaklaştırarak dikkatimizden kaçan, önemsiz görünen şeyleri görünür kılar ve film parçalanmış modern yaşamı bütünlüklü bir şekilde deneyimlememize imkân sağlar. Benjamin’e göre film izleyicide aktif bir tutumun oluşmasına neden olarak izleyiciyi sorgulamaya ve eleştirmeye yöneltir. Böylece izleyiciyi politik kılar.

References

  • Artan, E. Çiğdem. (2012). “Fotoğrafın Sanatsal Değerinin Ötesinde Kullanım Alanları Üzerine Bir Tartışma: Bilgi mi, Propaganda mı?”, Cogito, Sayı: 52, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2016). “Adorno’ya Cevap”, Estetik ve Politika, Realizm-Modernizm Çatısması, Çev. Elçin Gen, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2012). “Baudelaire’de Bazı Motifler Üzerine”, Çev. Ahmet Doğukan, Son Bakışta Aşk, Walter Benjamin’den Seçme Yazılar, Sunuş ve Haz. Nurdan Gürbilek, İstanbul: Metis Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (1980a). “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit”, “Erste Fassung”, Gesammelte Schriften, Band I-2, Hg. von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenh.user, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (1980b). “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit”, “Zweite Fassung”, Gesammelte Schriften, Band I-2, Hg. von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenh.user, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (1980c). “Kleine Geschichte der Photografie”, Gesammelte Schriften, Band II-1, Hg. von Rolf Tiedemann und Hermann Schweppenhäuser, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2018a). “Miki Fare Üzerine”, Walter Benjamin Kitabı, Haz. ve Çev. Tunç Tayanç, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2018b), “Oskar A. H. Schmitz’e Yanıt”, Walter Benjamin Kitabı, Haz. ve Çev. Tunç Tayanç, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2005). “Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz”, Selected Writings, Volume 2, Part 1, 1927-1930, Ed. by Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith, USA:The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  • Benjamin, Walter. (2006). “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibilty”, Second Version, Selected Writings, Volume 3, Ed. by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, Trans. by Edmund Jephcott, Howard Eiland and Others, USA: Harvard University Press.
  • Bolz, Norbert, van Reijen, Willem. (1991). Walter Benjamin, Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus Verlag.
  • Bratu-Hansen, Miriam. (2012). Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
  • Bürger, Peter. (2017). Avangard Kuramı, Çev. Erol Özbek-Şeyda Öztürk, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
  • Clark, Tobby, (2017), Sanat ve Propaganda: Kitle Kültürü Çağında Politik İmge, Çev. Esin Hoşsucu, İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.
  • Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. (1997). Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini’s Italy, Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Ferris, David S. (2008). The Cambridge Introduction to Walter Benjamin, New York: Cambridge University Press.
  • Friedlander, Eli. (2012). Walter Benjamin: A Philosophical Portrait, USA: Harvard University Press.
  • Gilloch, Graeme. (2002). Walter Benjamin, Critical Constellations, Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Kang, Jaeho. (2015). Walter Benjamin ve Medya, Modernitenin Gösterisi, Çev. Deniz Gedizoğlu, KAFKA, İstanbul: Epsilon Yayıncılık Hizmetleri Tic. ve San. Ltd. Şti.
  • Kramer, Sven. (2013). Walter Benjamin zur Einführung, Hamburg: Junius Verlag GmbH.
  • Kreimeier, Klaus. (2005). “Benjamin und die Medien”, Walter Benjamins Medientheorie, Hg., Christian Schulte, Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.
  • Kreimeier, Klaus, Walter Benjamin und der Film, https://traumundexzess.com/walter-benjamin-und-der-film/ , Erişim Tarihi: 10.02. 2022.
  • Leslie, Esther. (2019). Walter Benjamin, Çev. Meryem Sena Özgüven & M. Murtaza Özeren, İstanbul: Dedalus Kitap.
  • Leslie, Esther. (2010). Walter Benjamin, Konformizmi Alt Etmek, Çev. Eda Çaça, İstanbul: Habitus Yayıncılık.
  • Lindroos, Kia, (1998), Now Time-Image Space, Temporalization of Politics in Walter Benjamin’s Philosophy of History and Art, Jyväskylä: SoPhi.
  • Lunn, Eugene. (2010). Marksizm ve Modernizm, Lukacs, Brecht, Benjamin ve Adorno Üzerine Tarihsel Bir İnceleme, Çev. Yavuz Alogan, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
  • Mourenza, Daniel. (2020). Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Film, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  • Müller, Inez. (1993). Walter Benjamin und Bertolt Brecht, Ansätze zu einer dialektischen Ästhetik in den dreißiger Jahren, St. Ingberg: Röhrig: Werner J. Röhrig Verlag.
  • Özbek, Meral. (2000). “Walter Benjamin’i Okumak II”, Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, Cilt 55, Sayı: 3, s.103-131.
  • Palmier, Jean-Michel. (2009). Lumpensammler, Engel und bucklicht Mannlein, Asthetik und Politik bei Walter Benjamin, Üb. von Horst Brühmann, Deutschland: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Recki, Birgit. (1988). Aura und Autonomie: Zur Subjectivität der Kunst bei Walter Benjamin und Theodor W. Adorno, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann Verlag.
  • Ross, Nathan. (2017). The Philosophy and Politics of Aesthetic Experience, German Romanticism and Critical Theory, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Van Reijen, Willem & Van Doorn, Herman. (2001). Aufenthalte und Passagen, Leben und Werk Walter Benjamins, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
  • Reisch, Heiko. (1992). Das Archiv und die Erfahrung, Walter Benjamins Essays im medientheoretischen Kontext, Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann Verlag.
  • Rutsky, R. L. (2007). Walter Benjamin and the Dispersion of Cinema, Symplokē, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, Cinema without Borders (2007), pp. 8-23, University of Nebraska Press.
  • Witte, Bernd. (2007). Walter Benjamin, Çev. Mustafa Tüzel, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları.
  • Wollin, Richard. (1994). Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, USA: University of California Press.
  • Wood, Michael. (2018). Habits of Distraction. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.
  • Zazzali, Peter. (2013). “The Role of Theatre in Society: A Comperative Analysis of the Socio- Culturel Theories of Brecht, Benjamin and Adorno”, The European Legacy, Vo. 18, No. 6.
There are 39 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Philosophy
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Fatma Erkek 0000-0001-7309-5694

Publication Date May 21, 2022
Submission Date February 23, 2022
Acceptance Date April 6, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Issue: 33

Cite

Chicago Erkek, Fatma. “WALTER BENJAMIN’İN FİLM KURAMI: FİLMİN POLİTİK ETKİSİ”. FLSF Felsefe Ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, no. 33 (May 2022): 399-422. https://doi.org/10.53844/flsf.1077738.

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