The Mass Ornament
Weimar Essays
by Siegfried Kracauer ; translated, edited, and with an introduction by Thomas Y. Levin

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Author(s)

Siegfried Kracauer

Editor(s)

Thomas Y. Levin

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 1995

Scope

404 Pages, illustrated, 24 cm.

ISBN

9780674551633

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This book is a celebration of the masses - their tastes, amusements and everyday lives. Taking up themes of modernity, such as isolation and alienation, urban culture, and the relation between the group and the individual, Kracauer explores a kaleidoscope of topics: shopping arcades, the cinema, bestsellers and their readers, photography, dance, hotel lobbies, Kafka, the Bible, and boredom. For Kracauer, the most revelatory facets of modern metropolitan life lie on the surface, in the ephemeral and the marginal.

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Keywords

sociology , public space , urbanism , philosophy

Location

Cabinet 11 - 1: Filosofie ; Sociologie ; Maatschappij ; Politiek

Remarks

originally published in 1963 by Surkamp Verlag ; Incl. bibliographical references and Index.