International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 205

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
truth (fidelity to the authentic original). This allows f or an account of the historical
origins of nationalism in certain locations (Western Europe, the Americas) and in
reaction to certain forces (colonialism) without privileging these historical facts as
constitutive of the authentic nationalism.
The Influence of Benjamin
How is Anderson’s account of nationalism influenced by Benjamin? The key ways in
which Benjamin has influenced Anderson’s understanding of the origin and spread
of nationalism are in: (1) the importance afforded to print -capitalism; (2) the
linkage between ‘homogenous, empty time’, modernity and nationalism; (3) the
image of the Angel of History. Alongside this schema, it should be remembered that
it is Benjamin’s views on materialism, culture and politics in modernity, as a whole,
that inspire Anderson. Nevertheless, I elaborate on these three notions, focusing
heavily on print-capitalism, in a way which hopefully also introduces and explains
the most relevant aspects of Benjamin’s thought.
Print-capitalism
Anderson’s notion of ‘print-capitalism’ is inspired by Benjamin’s essay on
Mechanical Reproduction. In the 1930s, Benjamin opens that essay with the
premise that he is at a sufficient historical distance to reflect on the effect of the
rise of the capitalist mode of production on art. He argues that:
For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of
art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.92
Benjamin argued that before the development and spread of printing and other
technologies that allowed for reproduction, art had possessed a more significant
aura. Aura is that which is ‘authentic’; that part of an object which cannot be
reproduced. In the case of the artistic object, authenticity had its basis in ritual and
religion. 93 To explain further the disappearance of aura, Benjamin argues that there
are two poles that art can tend to: on the one hand there is the cult, where the art
is rarely seen (for example, a religious statue that is mostly kept from public view),
while on the other hand there is the exhibition (in which the public are encouraged
to view the art as much as possible). 94 Mechanical reproduction favours the latter
pole significantly, to the extent that, for Benjamin, the quantity of the shift
becomes qualitative. 95
Mechanical reproduction, in favouring this latter (“exhibitory”) pole, changes
the relationship between author and public, reducing the earlier divide between
the two that was based on the genius or creativity of the author. With high
circulations and publicity of modern forms of art, there are more readers than
92

Benjamin, Illuminations., 226.
Ibid., 226.
94
Ibid., 227.
95
The idea of a qualitative changing arising from a quantitative change comes from Hegel and Marx. Another
example is when the quantity of private property becomes significant it marks a qualitative change in power
relations.
93

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