“O autor como produtor” na era da “estetização da política”

• Main Author: Figueiredo, Clara F.
• Publication Date: 2021
• Format: Article
• Language: por
• Source: RUS (São Paulo)
• Download full: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rus/article/view/188085
• topic: Estetização da política; politização da arte; Arte da vanguarda russa; Aesthetization of politics; Politicization of art; Russian avantgarde art

The correspondence of Walter Benjamin shows that the circulation of “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in Russia was to him a matter of the utmost importance. In April 1936, Benjamin confessed to Kitty Marx-Stenchnerider his expectations and pessimism: “Considering these reactions, I might even have reason to believe that the work will have little repercussion in the place that should be its natural place, in Russia.” What were the reasons behind the expectations of Benjamin? Why would Russia be its “natural” place or destination? How can we explain his pessimism? This paper aims at discussing the militant and political dimension of “The Work of Art…” as well as its insertion in the Russian debate in its time, in the countercurrent of the Stalinist aestheticization of politics and into the direction of “the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art.”