During the past 50 to 100 years, traditional interpretations of culture and literature have been greatly undermined. In the past, it was thought that works of literature expressed something about the human spirit, and that a person's appreciation of both life and his fellow human beings would be greatly enhanced by reading the "classics." The twentieth century has seen a great reversal of these understandings, however. No one greater typifies this general revision than the German-Jewish critic Walter Benjamin, who committed suicide during World War II in 1940. His most powerful and most disturbing idea is that experience doesn't truly exist, as an individual's behavior is scripted entirely by his culture, and that the true perception of reality is instead dictated by shock and trauma.
I first found out about Benjamin's ideas in English 14, a class designed to provide an overall introduction to modern critical views of literature to its students. Upon first reading Benjamin, I experienced (if I may be permitted to use this term) revulsion, a feeling which persists. While it is undeniable that many of an individual's actions are dictated by social norms, or what is both expected and accepted of a person in society, the conclusion that experience itself is a fiction is absurd, and can lead to profoundly negative consequences if it is believed and followed.
Basically, the most strenuous objection I have to Benjamin's theory is that it devalues the individual to such an extent that one's appreciation of life is decimated. Life becomes meaningless and pointless. If I felt that everything I did was dictated by my society, I would be unable to enjoy life, as I would feel that my emotions of joy, sorrow, or anything else were non-existent, but were just the emotions I was supposed to experience. In other words, the very vitality of life is sapped, and instead life becomes a drain and a drag. Or, to put it another way, "life sucks." It is impossible to live a happy life if one does not feel that one is in control of it, and it is therefore not surprising that Benjamin lived much of his life in a listless and aimless fashion which culminated in suicide.
Furthermore, Benjamin ignores the uniqueness of the individual. While it is true that many of the great events in an individuals life, such as love, are shared by nearly all humans, the way in which those emotions are expressed differ greatly. So while it is true that much of literature is exposing the folly of conventional expressions of love, such as Shakespeare's comedies, it is also true that in the end they are affirming the value and experience of those powerful emotions. Much Ado About Nothing does indeed demonstrate that falling in love is culturally dictated, through the silly and absurd behavior of Claudio in relation to Hero, but it also affirms love through the relation of Beatrice and Benedick. In addition, both an individual's passions and daily behavior tend to be very unique. For example, I love opera, Beethoven, arguing, and playing bridge, while my obsession is rotisserie baseball. I have yet to encounter this particular combination in anyone else. Any individ
ual can make similar claims about their own activities. Everyone lives in society, and their behavior is therefore somewhat scripted by it, but it is also true that their overall experience of life is unique.
The worst part about Benjamin's theory is his belief that because experience is impossible, shock and trauma remain the only valid descriptions of life. This belief is dangerous because it removes all of the positive aspects of life and replaces them with negative and emotionally-disrupting ones. It is very understandable that Benjamin interpreted life in this way, since he lived in Germany during a time when Jews were being increasingly persecuted, certainly a very traumatic thing to endure. Nevertheless, it is impossible to live a meaningful life with this attitude. Why not simply end the trauma, as Benjamin did. Also, works of literature become reduced to being records of shock. It becomes hard to understand the value of studying literature at all. In sum, Benjamin's ideas are life-denying, literature and art-negating, and quite simply unsustainable.
Benjamin's approach to life and literature is typical of many modern critics. While their response to the excesses of the nineteenth century are quite valuable, I believe that, as a society, we have now strayed too far to the other side of the pendulum. We need to recover experience. Much of the angst of modern society, which is manifested in such events as the massacre in Littleton, Colo. can be at least partially attributed to the fact that some individuals are unable to bear the burden of being told repeatedly by their culture and its art works that their lives are meaningless and hopeless. Returning to a positive affirmation of literature is at least one step in the right direction -- recognizing the lofty possibilities of the human spirit, rather than just deprecating it.
