THE RADIOPHONIC EXPERIENCES OF WALTER BENJAMIN IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC (1929-1933)

Resumo

Writings of Walter Benjamin for radio during the Weimar Republic (1929-1933) to children education were discovered in the 60’s and reveal to us his Hörspielle,
Hörsmodelle, Funkspiele, catastrophes narratives, infantile stories, etc. The author had no radio theory but was intending to give another function to radio as educator, in a Marxist sense, in order to explore its esthetical and political potentialities. We are comparing the Benjamin’s view of the radio with the radio theory of Theodor W. Adorno, in the period that is remembered as the 'radio days'. In fact, the differences between Adorno and Benjamin are rather based in their different objects (of analysis – the radio music (Adorno) and the oral narratives by means of the radio Benjamin). Besides the radio experiments of Benjamin, his assertions about the cinema and photography are extremely important for esthetical evaluations of art and technology relationship.