Siegfried Kracauer – författare

An essential work of the cinematic history of the Weimar Republic by a leading figure of film criticismFirst published in 1947, From Caligari to Hitler remains an undisputed landmark study of the rich cinematic history of the Weimar Republic. Prominent film critic Siegfried Kracauer examines German society from 1921 to 1933, in light of such movies as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, M, Metropolis, and The Blue Angel. He explores the connections among film aesthetics, the prevailing psychological state of Germans in the Weimar era, and the evolving social and political reality of the time. Kracauer makes a startling (and still controversial) claim: films as popular art provide insight into the unconscious motivations and fantasies of a nation.With a critical introduction by Leonardo Quaresima which provides context for Kracauer’s scholarship and his contributions to film studies, this Princeton Classics edition makes an influential work available to new generations of cinema enthusiasts.

First published in 1930, Siegfried Kracauer's work was greeted with great acclaim and soon attained the status of a classic. The object of his inquiry was the new class of salaried employees who populated the cities of Weimar Germany.Spiritually homeless, divorced from all custom and tradition, these white-collar workers sought refuge in entertainment-or the "distraction industries," as Kracauer put it-but, only three years later, were to flee into the arms of Adolf Hitler. Eschewing the instruments of traditional sociological scholarship, but without collapsing into mere journalistic reportage, Kracauer explores the contradictions of this caste. Drawing on conversations, newspapers, adverts and personal correspondence, he charts the bland horror of the everyday. In the process he succeeds in writing not just a prescient account of the declining days of the Weimar Republic, but also a path-breaking exercise in the sociology of culture which has sharp relevance for today.

Siegfried Kracauer stands out as one of the most significant theorists and critics of the twentieth century, acclaimed for his analyses of film and popular culture. However, his writing on propaganda and politics has been overshadowed by the works of his contemporaries and colleagues associated with the Frankfurt School.This book brings together a broad selection of Kracauer’s work on media and political communication, much of it previously unavailable in English. It features writings spanning more than two decades, from studies of totalitarian propaganda written in the 1930s to wartime work on Nazi newsreels and anti-Semitism through to examinations of American and Soviet political messaging in the early Cold War period. These varied texts illuminate the interplay among politics, mass culture, and the media, and they encompass Kracauer’s core concerns: the individual and the masses, the conditions of cultural production, and the critique of modernity.The introduction and afterword explore the significance of Kracauer’s contributions to critical theory, film and media studies, and the analysis of political communication both in his era and the present day. At a time when demagoguery and bigotry loom over world politics, Kracauer’s inquiries into topics such as the widespread appeal of fascist propaganda and the relationship of new media forms and technologies to authoritarianism are strikingly relevant.

Siegfried Kracauer stands out as one of the most significant theorists and critics of the twentieth century, acclaimed for his analyses of film and popular culture. However, his writing on propaganda and politics has been overshadowed by the works of his contemporaries and colleagues associated with the Frankfurt School.This book brings together a broad selection of Kracauer’s work on media and political communication, much of it previously unavailable in English. It features writings spanning more than two decades, from studies of totalitarian propaganda written in the 1930s to wartime work on Nazi newsreels and anti-Semitism through to examinations of American and Soviet political messaging in the early Cold War period. These varied texts illuminate the interplay among politics, mass culture, and the media, and they encompass Kracauer’s core concerns: the individual and the masses, the conditions of cultural production, and the critique of modernity.The introduction and afterword explore the significance of Kracauer’s contributions to critical theory, film and media studies, and the analysis of political communication both in his era and the present day. At a time when demagoguery and bigotry loom over world politics, Kracauer’s inquiries into topics such as the widespread appeal of fascist propaganda and the relationship of new media forms and technologies to authoritarianism are strikingly relevant.

Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966), friend and colleague of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, was one of the most influential film critics of the mid-twentieth century. In this book, Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson have, for the first time assembled essays in cultural criticism, film, literature, and media theory that Kracauer wrote during the quarter century he spent in America after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. In the decades following his arrival in the United States, Kracauer commented on developments in American and European cinema, wrote on film noir and neorealism, examined unsettling political trends in mainstream cinema, and reviewed the contemporary experiments of avant-garde filmmakers. As a cultural critic, he also ranged far beyond cinema, intervening in debates regarding Jewish culture, unraveling national and racial stereotypes, and reflecting on the state of arts and humanities in the 1950s. These essays, together with the editors' introductions and an afterward by Martin Jay offer illuminating insights into the films and culture of the postwar years and provide a unique perspective on this eminent emigre intellectual.

Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966), friend and colleague of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, was one of the most influential film critics of the mid-twentieth century. In this book, Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson have, for the first time assembled essays in cultural criticism, film, literature, and media theory that Kracauer wrote during the quarter century he spent in America after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. In the decades following his arrival in the United States, Kracauer commented on developments in American and European cinema, wrote on film noir and neorealism, examined unsettling political trends in mainstream cinema, and reviewed the contemporary experiments of avant-garde filmmakers. As a cultural critic, he also ranged far beyond cinema, intervening in debates regarding Jewish culture, unraveling national and racial stereotypes, and reflecting on the state of arts and humanities in the 1950s. These essays, together with the editors' introductions and an afterward by Martin Jay offer illuminating insights into the films and culture of the postwar years and provide a unique perspective on this eminent emigre intellectual.

Siegfried Kracauer (1889–1966), friend and colleague of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, was one of the most influential film critics of the mid-twentieth century. In this book, Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson have, for the first time assembled essays in cultural criticism, film, literature, and media theory that Kracauer wrote during the quarter century he spent in America after fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. In the decades following his arrival in the United States, Kracauer commented on developments in American and European cinema, wrote on film noir and neorealism, examined unsettling political trends in mainstream cinema, and reviewed the contemporary experiments of avant-garde filmmakers. As a cultural critic, he also ranged far beyond cinema, intervening in debates regarding Jewish culture, unraveling national and racial stereotypes, and reflecting on the state of arts and humanities in the 1950s. These essays, together with the editors'' introductions and an afterward by Martin Jay offer illuminating insights into the films and culture of the postwar years and provide a unique perspective on this eminent émigré intellectual.

Siegfried Kracauer was one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant cultural critics, a daring and prolific scholar, and an incisive theorist of film. In this volume his finest writings on modern society make their long-awaited appearance in 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. The Mass Ornament today remains a refreshing tribute to popular culture, and its impressively interdisciplinary essays continue to shed light not only on Kracauer’s later work but also on the ideas of the Frankfurt School, the genealogy of film theory and cultural studies, Weimar cultural politics, and, not least, 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. Until now, Kracauer has been known primarily for his writings on the cinema. This volume brings us the full scope of his gifts as one of the most wide-ranging and penetrating interpreters of modern life.

Siegfried Kracauer's classic study, originally published in 1960, explores the distinctive qualities of the cinematic medium. The book takes its place alongside works in classical film theory by such figures as Bela Balazs, Rudolf Arnheim, and Andre Bazin, among others, and has met with much critical dispute. In this new edition, Miriam Bratu Hansen, examining the book in the context of Kracauer's extensive film criticism from the 1920s, provides a framework for appreciating the significance of Theory of Film for contemporary film theory.

Theodor W. Adorno and Siegfried Kracauer were two of the most influential philosophers and cultural critics of the 20th century.  While Adorno became the leading intellectual figure of the Frankfurt School, Kracauer’s writings on film, photography, literature and the lifestyle of the middle classes opened up a new and distinctive approach to the study of culture and everyday life in modern societies.This volume brings together for the first time the long-running correspondence between these two major figures of German intellectual culture.  As left-wing German Jews who were forced into exile with the rise of Nazism, Adorno and Kracauer shared much in common, but their worldviews were in many ways markedly different. These differences become clear in a correspondence that ranges over a great diversity of topics, from the nature of criticism and the meaning of utopia to the work of their contemporaries, including Bloch, Brecht and Benjamin. Where Kracauer embraced the study of new mass media, above all film, Adorno was much more sceptical. This is borne out in his sharp criticism of Kracauer’s study of the composer Offenbach, which Adorno derided as musically illiterate, as well as his later criticism of Kracauer’s Theory of Film. Exposing the very different ways that both men were grappling intellectually with the massive transformations of the 20th century, these letters shed fresh light on the principles shaping their work at the same time as they reveal something of the intellectual brilliance and human frailties of these two towering figures of 20th century thought. This unique volume will be of great value to anyone interested in critical theory and in 20th century intellectual and cultural history.

Theodor W. Adorno and Siegfried Kracauer were two of the most influential philosophers and cultural critics of the 20th century.  While Adorno became the leading intellectual figure of the Frankfurt School, Kracauer’s writings on film, photography, literature and the lifestyle of the middle classes opened up a new and distinctive approach to the study of culture and everyday life in modern societies.This volume brings together for the first time the long-running correspondence between these two major figures of German intellectual culture.  As left-wing German Jews who were forced into exile with the rise of Nazism, Adorno and Kracauer shared much in common, but their worldviews were in many ways markedly different. These differences become clear in a correspondence that ranges over a great diversity of topics, from the nature of criticism and the meaning of utopia to the work of their contemporaries, including Bloch, Brecht and Benjamin. Where Kracauer embraced the study of new mass media, above all film, Adorno was much more sceptical. This is borne out in his sharp criticism of Kracauer’s study of the composer Offenbach, which Adorno derided as musically illiterate, as well as his later criticism of Kracauer’s Theory of Film. Exposing the very different ways that both men were grappling intellectually with the massive transformations of the 20th century, these letters shed fresh light on the principles shaping their work at the same time as they reveal something of the intellectual brilliance and human frailties of these two towering figures of 20th century thought. This unique volume will be of great value to anyone interested in critical theory and in 20th century intellectual and cultural history.

En la Alemania del período de entreguerras se estaba produciendo un fenómeno que llamó la atención de Siegfried Kracauer: la emergencia de los empleados. Este colectivo de tres millones y medio de personas (de las cuales un tercio eran mujeres) ocupaba los puestos técnicos y administrativos en los sectores del comercio, los bancos y los transportes y constituía un ejército de asalariados intercambiables entre sí. Sus bajos sueldos hacían que su existencia fuera insegura y sus perspectivas de independencia prácticamente nulas.Con su mirada puesta en Berlín, por ser en la capital alemana donde la vida pública estaba siendo modificada ostensiblemente por las necesidades de los empleados, Kracauer se dedica a recopilar citas, conversaciones y observaciones realizadas in situ, con ánimo de realizar un diagnóstico sociológico, puesto que para el autor francfortés «el conocimiento de esta situación no sólo es la condición necesaria para todas las transformaciones, sino que supone ya de por sí un cambio». En este libro Kracauer realiza una reflexión clásica sobre una clase social de la que muchos de nosotros formamos parte en la actualidad.

Los siete ensayos de Siegfried Kracauer que componen este volumen, reunidos bajo el título común de «Objetos externos e internos» cuando se publicaron en su libro Das Ornament der Masse (El ornamento de la masa, 1927), son extremadamente representativos de toda la obra del autor francfortés y del período convulso y de renovación estética en que fueron escritos. Los temas tratados –la fotografía, el baile, los best sellers, los viajes…– constituyen una celebración de la multitud urbana, de su cotidianidad, de sus gustos y formas de entretenimiento, pero también una acerada crítica de su vaciedad espiritual y sus quiméricos sueños. Aparentemente banales, estas manifestaciones de la vida social analizadas por Kracauer conforman la superficie de lo moderno y adquieren significaciones políticas y sociológicas de gran calado para la comprensión de la modernidad. Junto con el segundo volumen (Construcciones y perspectivas, que también publicará Editorial Gedisa), esta recopilación es también una muestra significativa del proceso de radicalización política de Kracauer durante los años de la República de Weimar: su evolución de una visión «anticapitalista romántica» a una crítica materialista y dialéctica de la cultura poco común hasta entonces.

Cuando Siegfried Kracauer comenzó su colaboración en 1922 con el Frankfurter Zeitung y publicó algunos de sus textos en Der Detektiv-Roman. Ein Philosophischer Traktat (La novela policíaca. Un tratado filosófico, 1925) estaba inaugurando, junto con sus contemporáneos Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin o Theodor Adorno, una auténtica teoría de la modernidad, que siguió desarrollando durante los años siguientes, construyendo sobre la marcha métodos teóricos para el análisis del circo, la fotografía, las películas cinematográficas, los anuncios publicitarios, el turismo, el trazado urbano o la danza, en más artículos periodísticos que reunió en 1927 bajo el título de Das Ornament der Masse (El ornamento de la masa), y que Editorial Gedisa publica en dos volúmenes: La fotografía y otros ensayos y este Construcciones y perspectivas.En este volumen se presentan los escritos de Kracauer englobados bajo el nombre de «Construcciones» y «Perspectivas», los cuales constituyen una muestra perfecta del interés del autor por diversos aspectos de la realidad diaria, pues, para Kracauer, las facetas más reveladoras de la vida metropolitana contemporánea residían en su superficie, incluso en lugares aparentemente marginales como los vestíbulos de los hoteles.Los asuntos dispares de los artículos aquí recogidos (la traducción bíblica, la sociología, la teología, la literatura, etc., con sendos escritos dedicados a Simmel, Benjamin o Kafka) son los elementos de una fotografía de conjunto de la sociedad alemana del momento y un buen ejemplo de la capacidad de Kracauer de aunar con maestría las exigencias teóricas del estudio cultural con la descripción vívida de lo cotidiano.