Cinema and Marxist aesthetics : Lukács, Benjamin and Adorno

The aim of this project is to provide an historical and philosophical interpretation of the significance of the cinema as an important medium in creating our social reality. This interpretation will use as its foundation the Marxist aesthetics of Georg Lukács, which then leads to the different assessments of popular culture found in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno. At the same time, we will provide historical context by considering various key or paradigmatic episodes in the history of cinematic culture. My argument is that the cinema is the medium most evocative of the 20th century in terms of its social dimension as a mass art form and in its contribution to the reification of our consciousness. Yet it also retains a certain potential as an emancipatory cultural form, one that can change the modern social reality that is has itself played a significant role in creating.