Historische Authentizität und Medien [Historical Authenticity and Media]

“Media” and “Authenticity” are terms that face each other with tension. A medium is a mediator, an intermediary, whereas “authenticity” as an ideal type aims at the original, at something that is immediate.  However, from a historical point of view, it seems that both are closely interconnected: in any case, the boom of authenticity and the criticism regarding missing “authenticity” fall into the age of “mechanical reproduction” (Walter Benjamin), so the time from the late 19th century onwards, in which mass media ascended to central instances of society.
The workshop seeks to bring contributions together that focus empirically or historically on the relationship between media and authenticity and, thereby, adopt a historical perspective. The conference’s objective is to bring researchers together who contribute to initiating studies by analysing paradigmatically the tense relationship between mass media and the attribution of authenticity or its expectation especially during the ‘long 20th century’ or researchers who analyse this topic methodically. We welcome contributions from different point of views in the field of history, media and communication science, museology as well as linguistics or cultural science.
Please register until July 7th here.
Programme (pdf)