Siegfried Kracauer was one of the 20th century's major cultural critics, a prolific scholar and a theorist of film. In this volume his writings on modern society are translated into English. This book is a celebration of the masses - their tastes, amusements, and everyday lives. Taking up themes of modernity, such as isolation and alienation, urban culture and the relation between the group and the individual, Kracauer explores a kaleidoscope of topics: shopping arcades; the cinema; bestsellers and their readers; photography; dance; hotel lobbies; Kafka; the Bible; and boredom. For Kracauer, the most revelatory facets of modern life in the West lie on the surface, in the ephemeral and the marginal. Of special fascination to him is the United States, where he eventually settled after fleeing Germany and whose culture he sees as defined almost exclusively by "the ostentatious display of surface". With these essays, written in the 1920s and early 1930s and edited by the author in 1963, Kracauer was the first to demonstrate that studying the everyday world of the masses can bring great rewards. This work remains a tribute to popular culture and its interdisciplinary essays continue to shed light not only on Kracauer's later work but also on ideas of the Frankfurt School, the genealogy of film theory and cultural studies, Weimar cultural politics, and the exigencies of intellectual exile. In his introduction, Thomas Levin situates Kracauer in a turbulent age, illuminates the forces that influenced him - including his friendships with Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and other Weimar intellectuals - and provides the context necessary for understanding his ideas.
Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966) was the author of Theory of Film, From Caligari to Hitler, and many other works on historical, sociological, and cultural topics.
Thomas Y. Levin is Associate Professor of German at Princeton University.
- 剖析魏玛时期大众娱乐与几何化身体
- 揭示现代性中个体异化与群体无意识
- 探讨摄影、电影等媒介的镜像功能
- 文化研究与社会学爱好者
- 法兰克福学派思想追随者
- 电影理论与现代性研究者
- 注意克拉考尔独特的散文式笔法
- 结合魏玛历史背景理解文本隐喻
- 关注表面现象背后的社会机制
- 文笔优美但理论深度难懂
- 对现代大众文化洞察深刻
- 与本雅明思想有紧密关联
本导读基于书籍简介、目录、原文摘录、短评和书评生成，不等同于全文精读。
- "the more incorrectly they present the surface of things, the more correct they become the more clearly they mirror the secret mechanism of society. In reality it may not often happen that a scullery maid marries the owner of a Rolls Royce. But doesn't every Rolls Royce owner dream that scullery maid"
- "Short circuit people. Whether one comes upon them in this camp or another (and one encounters them wherever there seems to be a ready solution in matters of faith), what they all have in common is a tendency to flee headlong from the dreariness and the world outside in order to slip quickly into a s"
- "There are many people who sacrifice themselves noblemindedly because they are too lazy to rebel; many tears are shed which flow only because crying is sometimes easier than contemplation."
- "Each engagement is linked with the continuous use of one's own car. I have traveled around the entire world in order to find myself, Count Keyserling affirms in his philosopher's travelogue. Society likewise never finds itself through its voyages; but unlike the count, it travels precisely in order "
- "The hands in factory correspond with the legs of the Tiller girls."
- "knows no higher unity than the unison of the nation's fate."
- "Educated people...have taken offense at the emergence of the Tiller Girls and the stadium images. They judge anything that entertains the crowd to be a distraction of that crowd. But despite what they think, the aesthetic pleasure gained from ornamental mass movements is legitimate."
- "记忆图像的意义联系着它们的真理内容。只要记忆图像融入了不受控制的本能生命（Triebleben）当中，一种魔力般的暖昧性就存在于它们当中，它们与几乎没有一丝光线可以穿过的磨砂玻璃一样不透明。当认识照亮了灵魂的植被并限制了自然的强制力，它们的透明性就会相应提高。只有被释放出来的衡量本能之魔力（Damonie）的意识才能发现真理。这意识回忆起的踪迹处于与被认知为真的事物的联系中，这些事物有可能在这样的踪迹里得以显明，也有可能被踪迹排除出去。这样的踪迹显现于其中的图像是优先于其他所有的记忆图像的，因为它不像其他图像那样保存一大堆不透明的回忆，而是符合真之认知的内容。我们有充分理由将其称为最后的图像，"
