The Dissolution Of Experience: A Study Of Benjamin's Experience Theory

The theory of experience is an important part of Benjamin's thought,and the dissolution of experience is one of the results that Benjamin reflected modernity.From the point of transmission,experience is something transmitted from the elders to the youngers in the traditional era.As collective life experience,it is practical,transitive and diachronic.From the point of happening,the real experience is the collect of subconscious materials,touched by involuntary memory.The opposite of real experience is the intellectual experience,remained in the voluntary memory.Experience has been poor in modern society.First,it is due to the decline of storytelling art,which results the dissolution of experience in experience transmission.The rise of novels and information breaks the connection between the speakers and the listeners,obstructing the transmission of experience.The development of technology leads to the disappearance of the storytelling place where collective life experience is transmitted.War and power make the previous experience fake,and people not only realize the cultural values,but tend to erase all traces.Secondly,the shock changes the structure of people's experience,which cancels the possibility of produce experience from the mentality.Through the resistance mechanism of the consciousness system,more and more external stimulus directly generates as the feeling(Erlebnis)remained in consciousness,and the experience entering the unconscious is getting less and less.Excessive energy brings people shock.Shock is not only the basic way to perceive the world,but modern society constantly acclimates people to accept shock.People become indifferent,numb,and robotized.Finally,the crisis of reproduction in the art,the art of mechanical reproduction changes the way of people's appreciation,which also aggravates the lack of experience.Benjamin believed that the dissolution of experience reflected the survival difficulties of modern people and their mental homelessness: they become irritable and anxious,resist communication,and can't experience the pain of others.In economic,they are controlled and alienated by commodity fetishism,pursuing "fashion" blindly.In the society and history,their Messianic power becomes weak,making the save of history and the expectations of future difficult.To solve the dissolution of experience,Benjamin tried to make connection between Baudelaire's correspondances and the aura of art,to recall the involuntary memory and the real experience in it.Although this save is difficult in the reality,Benjamin's thinking is also significant.To the dissolution of experience in reality,we should absorb the positive and reasonable aspects of Benjamin's theory,realizing thecrisis survival of modern people instead of sinking into the reality,having the ability of reflect and being critical.In this sense,it is the real power and value of the experience theory.