Modernity turned shock into the norm of lived experience

Evidence

In On Some Motifs in Baudelaire', nothing remained of the themes of cheerfulness in the new architecture’ or passing on humanity to the masses'. … Benjamin formulated the crucial question as how lyric poetry can have as its basis an experience [Erfahrung] for which the shock experience [Erlebnis] has become the norm’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 861

Categorization

• DEFINE: Here the Erfahrung/Erlebnis distinction — accumulated experience vs punctual shock — is given its sharpest formulation as the cost of modernity.
• XREF: This Erfahrung/Erlebnis distinction is central to Benjamin’s philosophy of history and resonates with the shock- and trauma-studies literature of today. — connects to: Modern shock experiences undermine the basis of traditional lived experience — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 861; Modern life erodes integrated experience, replacing narration with information and shocks — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 623; Modernity fragments and autonomizes the senses, each gaining new intensity — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 555 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern life erodes integrated experience, replacing narration with information and shocks #expands (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 623
• Modern shock experiences undermine the basis of traditional lived experience #complicates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 861
• Modernity fragments and autonomizes the senses, each gaining new intensity #expands (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 555