Abstract
This study reappraises commodification theory and the production of nostalgia, analyzing the literary-aesthetic categories of allegory versus symbol, as explored through the work the critics, Walter Benjamin and George Lukacs. Both authors offering powerful critiques of modernity, Georg Lukacs’s theory of the proletariat resolves class struggle largely in terms of aesthetic categories, recapturing social and philosophic unity. By contrast, Walter Benjamin’s aesthetics of fragmentation as seen in his emphasis of the frames of photography. However, Benjamin’s discussion of the orchestra pit in theater explores allegorical structures that, while fragmentary, would seem to ambiguously explore the promise of an alternative unity (namely, ‘aura’) while embracing the reality of rupture. Put differently, there is a cautious optimism even in the analysis of fascism in Benjamin’s 1936 artwork essay. Finally, I analyze these contrasting aesthetic impulses through the conventions of the Hollywood musical, Singin’ in the Rain, in its presentation of artifice and device as foils overcome in the ‘real’ life portrayed in film; in effect, self-consciously producing a fantasy of the real.
Presenters
Mike SugimotoProfessor of Asian Studies; Coordinator of the Asian Studies Program, International Studies and Languages, Pepperdine University, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Nostalgia, Allegory, Symbol, Benjamin, Lukacs
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