A Study Of Benjamin's "Modernity" Thought

Benjamin began to pay attention to "modernity" from Baudelaire,and a large number of interpretations of Baudelaire's poetry in his text revealed his views on "modernity".Benjamin's era is the era of rapid development of capitalism.Therefore,he saw he progress brought by mechanical replication technology,And at the same time,the display value of art works replaced the worship value.On the other hand,Benjamin realized that technological progress was dissolving art,as well as with classics in the process of saying goodbye to tradition.Benjamin was deeply attached to this,therefore he called for the return of tradition.And the city of Paris entrusts Benjamin with more "modernity" thinking.From the perspective of the wanderer,Benjamin saw the crisis behind the prosperity of the arcade street,the alienation between people,and the commodity fetishism turning human beings into slaves of things.The consumer era interprets the "transition,transient and accidental" of "modernity" to the fullest.Benjamin saw Paris as a maze of "modernity",and the people living in the maze experienced tremors all the time.Benjamin's thinking about "modernity" inherits Baudelaire's "modernity",but different from Baudelaire's more attention to the "transition,transience and contingency" of "modernity",Benjamin's thinking about "modernity" always contains the factors of the past,and his nostalgia for the past is the unique place of his "modernity" thought.Benjamin devoted his life to the reconstruction of the ruins,hoping to redeem "modernity" with the help of tradition.However,like the unfinished "Arcade Street Plan",thinking about "modernity" is always an unfinished topic.