Title: Mass mediauras : form, technics, media /
Authors: Weber, Samuel, 1940-; Cholodenko, Alan.
Publisher: Stanford University Press,
Year: 1996
Subjects: Mass media criticism.; Mass media Philosophy
Abstract: The essays and interviews that compose this book provide an excellent introduction to and overview of the thought of one of the most brilliant critical and cultural theorists of our day. They include Weber's readings of some of the central texts of critical theory - including Kant's Critique of Judgment, Heidegger's Questing after Technology, and Benjamin's Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility. Other essays examine the thought of Plato, Descartes, Husserl, Kafka, Joyce, and Derrida discussing questions of objectivity, translation, iterability, representation, and mass media. The essays are supplemented by interviews and discussions that range over such topics as the effects of film and television on the perception of reality, differences in reporting the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, problems of authority and authorship, the controversies over Paul de Man's wartime writings and Heidegger's political positions, the relation of the Frankfurt School to deconstruction, and generally the status of critical 'theory'.
Contents: Essays. The unraveling of form -- Objectivity and its others -- Upsetting the setup : remarks on Heidegger's 'Questing after technics' -- Mass mediauras, or, Art, aura and media in the work of Walter Benjamin : the 1992 Mari Kuttna lecture on film -- Television : set and screen -- After deconstruction -- Interview and discussions. Deus ex media : interview by Cassi Plate of the ABC -- Catching up with the past : discussion with the Weber Reading Group -- Goings on : discussion with Rex Butler -- Postface / Alan Cholodenko.