Politicization of art in Walter Benjamin: the emancipatory potential of cinema in Charlie Chaplin's films

• Grant number: 19/25347-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Francisco de Ambrosis Pinheiro Machado
• Grantee: Patrícia Braz de Carvalho
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand from Walter Benjamin's conception of politicization of art, elaborated in the essay The work of art at the time of its technical reproducibility, 1936 (second version), as it is oriented, from the advent of technical reproducibility of works of art, the emancipatory potential of cinema in Charlie Chaplin's films capable of organizing the masses through class consciousness, which may eventually unfold into revolutionary political action. From this relation between art and politics, situated in the second period of Walter Benjamin's philosophical thought, the analysis is proposed, at first,Benjamin's concept of play space - Spielraum - elaborated in his political theory of art, through which we will analyze Chaplin's interaction with technique, the pantomime character of his characters, revealing the importance of the body as an instrument of reception and perception. in cinema, and the experimental ordering of cinematic space. For this purpose will be analyzed some excerpts of Chaplin films from its early phase, in which he does not use sound resources. (AU)