1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996308816003316

Autore

Forrest Tara

Titolo

The politics of imagination : Benjamin, Kracauer, Kluge / / Tara Forrest

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bielefeld, : transcript Verlag, 2007

Bielefeld, Germany : , : Transcript Verlag, , [2007]

©2007

ISBN

3-8394-0681-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (198)

Collana

Kultur- und Medientheorie

Classificazione

CI 1397

Disciplina

791.4375

Soggetti

Arts - Political aspects

Perception (Philosophy)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter    1  Contents    5  Introduction    9  Chapter 1: Benjamin, Proust and the Rejuvenating Powers of Memory    21  Chapter 2: The Politics of Aura and Imagination in Benjamin's Writings on Hashish    43  Chapter 3: "Reproducibility - Distraction - Politicization"    65  Chapter 4: "Film as the Discoverer of the Marvels of Everyday Life": Kracauer and the Promise of Realist Cinema    89  Chapter 5: On the Task of a Realist Historiography in Kracauer's History: The Last Things Before the Last    107  Chapter 6: From History's Rubble: Kluge on Film, History, and Politics    127  Chapter 7: Raw Materials for the Imagination: Kluge's Work for Television    149  Conclusion    169  Bibliography    175  Other Works Cited    191  Acknowledgements    193

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer and Alexander Kluge's analyses of the role that a rejuvenation in the capacity for imagination can play in encouraging us to reconceive the possibilities of the past, the present, and the future outside of the parameters of the status quo. The concept of imagination to which the title of the book refers is not a strictly defined, stable concept, but rather a term which is employed to refer to a capacity that facilitates both an active, creative relationship to one's environment, and a process of mediation between the outside world and one's own experiences and memories.  Through a detailed analysis of their engagements with subjects that



span a broad range of historical and thematic contexts (including topics as diverse as literature, children's play, film, photography, history, and television) the book charts the extent to which the concept of imagination plays a central role in Benjamin, Kracauer, and Kluge's explorations of a mode of perception and experience which could serve as a catalyst for the creation and sustenance of a desire for a different kind of future.

Reviewed in:    cultural studies review, 14/2, 9 (2008), Lisa McDonald  fsk Hamburg, 09.08.2009, Olaf Berg