The Salvation Factor In Benjamin’s Aesthetic Theory

Although his identity is complex and difficult to define clearly,Benjamin is,for the most part,seen as a thinker.Throughout his life,Benjamin has been deeply reflecting on modern society.In Benjamin’s metaphor,what humans think of as a civilizational achievement is actually nothing more than a pile of corpses.The messenger of God tried to repair and redeem this disaster,but was blown farther and farther into the future by the storm,and at the same time,the ruins piled up higher and higher.The storm means progress,and that ruin is human civilization.If human beings still believe in the so-called instrumental rationality and the possibility of self,they can only make the disaster worse,and regard the so-called concept of progress as the precursor to destruction,this is Benjamin’s critique of the progressive view of history,and it is in this view of history that Benjamin seeks the possibility of redemption.This article discusses the redemptive dimension in Benjamin’s aesthetic theory from three perspectives.First,from the perspectives of history,language and theology,this paper discusses Benjamin’s ideal of redemption in general:the so-called ideal of progress is just an illusion,which can only lead mankind to the ruins of destruction.This worldly desire for progress can reverse the development of redemptive forces and facilitate the coming of the Messiah.Secondly,starting from Benjamin’s art theory,it explains how to achieve social redemption through art:to confront the vulgar shock of modern life with the shock of art,so that people can get rid of the state of numbness and realize the hidden power and redemption of the Messiah around them.The moment that might come from it.Finally,starting from Benjamin’s research on urban aesthetics,he discusses his observation and criticism of social phenomena in the city,and seeks the possibility of redemption from it:the image of wanderers can be seen everywhere in the city.Confronting the fast-paced life of capitalist production with an idle stance of doing nothing,keep your individuality from being assimilated by the rhythm of society.Those who can resist the erosion of the world order must be the true wanderers.The idea of this thesis is to first sort out the redemptive ideal in Benjamin’s theory,and connect its various theories with the redemptive ideal as the thread,and extract the commonalities in Benjamin’s complicated and indistinguishable theories.The dissertation discusses Benjamin’s view of history,language,art and city aesthetics,and takes the ideal of redemption as a clue to link all the parts together,which has certain significance for the study of Benjamin’s thought.