“The Storyteller” was published in 1936, and is often read as a companion-piece to Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (“Das Kunstwerk am Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, 1936) and “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” (“Über einige Motive bei Baudelaire”, 1939). All three essays provide valuable insight into Benjamin’s interpretation of the condition of modernity, its impact on traditional cultural practices, and the value of literary and aesthetic genres that lend themselves to collective experience. “The Storyteller” was written in the summer of 1936, after “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, and it revised many of Benjamin’s ideas about the evolution of art and technology within modern…
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Citation: Armond, Kate. "Der Erzähler: Betrachtungen zum Werk Nikolai Lesskows". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 July 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5615, accessed 21 November 2024.]
