Distinction of Personal and Private and a Private Collection - Book Report/Review Example

Distinction of 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection There has been significant distinction between public and private historically andthis distinction has become one of the ubiquitous features of everyday life. In the modern usage, the terms public and private are used in compound and apparently contradictory ways. In the economic and political definition of property, the distinction between the two is represented by Marxist and capitalist ideologies and private property is a central feature of a capitalist economy. "The distinction between public and private is a ubiquitous feature of everyday life, where the terms are used in multiple and seemingly contradictory ways. Private property' is a defining feature of a capitalist economy, but in capitalist systems participants also consider 'private' those intimate relationships that are ideally protected from economic calculation. This combination is neither careless confusion nor a regrettable inconsistency." (Gal) The Marxist thinkers have often criticised the concept of private property which, to them, has made humanity stupid and passive due to the fact that an object becomes an individual's only if it is owned by him/her. It is essential to comprehend the distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and it can best be done by linking this distinction to collection. According to Walter Benjamin, who in a cryptic entry in file 'H' of his Passagen-Werk maintained that animals, children, and old men can be regarded as collectors, there is a primal urge in everyone to collect and there is connection between collecting and the task of historical materialist. In order to establish the meaning of the term 'the positive collector', Benjamin makes use of the Marxian idea about private property and, according to him, the positive collector realises the liberation of things from the bondage of utility. The concept of true collectors needs to be comprehended in a different way to the ordinary meaning of the term and the true collectors refuse to go along with the demands of capital. Therefore, the countertypes of collectors can disentangle the secret historical meanings of things they accrue. In his autobiographical essay "Unpacking My Library", Walter Benjamin prefigures the termination of collector and postulates that his role as a private collector will be taken over by the public collection. "The phenomenon of collecting loses its meaning as it loses its personal owner. Even though public collections may be less objectionable socially and more useful academically than private collections, the objects get their due only in the latter. I do know that time is running out for the type that I am discussing here and have been representing before you a bit ex officio. But, as Hegel put it, only when it is dark does the owl of Minerva begin its flight. Only in extinction is the collector comprehended." (Benjamin, 67) Therefore, it is essential to make comprehend the exact meaning of the concept of positive countertype of the collector which helps in distinguishing 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection. The concept of positive countertype or the positive dimension of collecting underlies the chief distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection. Walter Benjamin has undertaken salient efforts to explain the concept of positive countertype and only the countertypes of collectors can unscramble the secret historical meanings of things they accrue. According to him, the countertypes of collectors refuse to accept the demands of capital by submitting the objects they form into collection to worthless hands. "With collecting it is decisive that the object is released from all its original functions in order to enter into the closest possible relationship with its equivalents. This is the diametric opposite of use, and stands under the curious category of completeness... And for the true collector every single thing in this system becomes an encyclopaedia of all knowledge of the age, of the landscape, the industry, the owner from which it derives." (Benjamin, 271) The collector's role is to attach the particular in a magic circle where it frightens and he begins to own everything that belonged to history. He is not alienated from the realities but is immersed into the truths of history. Collecting may be comprehended as part of practical memory and, therefore, the acts of political commemoration in the commerce in antiques have great importance. Benjamin considers his own projected materialist history of nineteenth century Paris, Passagen-Werk, as a collection. He was referring to the downfall of this type as well as the fact that his role as a collector would be usurped by the public collection when he stated that the collector will be comprehended only in its extinction. In order to realise the concept of the positive countertype of the collector, one needs to be aware of several elements that contribute to the concept. It has been a difficult task to understand the meaning of the concept of the positive countertype of the collector. It is mainly because of the fact that the type has become extinct and that two distinct, though related, phenomena have arisen in its stead. "The first of these - the contemporary private collection, as opposed to Benjamin's personal collection - is amassed by those 'stupid and passive' collectors whose objects exist for them only insofar as they literally possess and use them. The second is the public collection, the museum." (Crimp, 203) Compared to the first phenomenon, it is the latter which makes it very difficult to comprehend Benjamin's ideas. He acknowledges this difficulty when he states that public collection appears less objectionable socially and more useful academically. Here, he is referring to the conventional, un-dialectical view that the museum is a progressive historical development. Therefore, Benjamin makes the essential distinction between public and private collection and suggests who in the public exactly benefitted from the triumph of the public. According to him, it is essential to consider the object of such educational works as a class rather than as the public. The concepts of the Social Democrats failed to prove right and the knowledge relating to the humanities, which dropped far behind economics remaining untouched by the revolution in economic theory, had the same outcome. Therefore, history was shaken up, to alleviate tedium, resulting in cultural history. "This cultural history, to which Benjamin opposes historical materialism, is precisely what the museum offers. It wrests its objects from their original historical contexts not as an act of political commemoration but in order to create the illusion of universal knowledge. By displaying the products of particular histories in a reified historical continuum, the museum fetishists them, which, as a Benjamin says, 'may well increase the burden of the treasure that are piled up on humanity's back. But it does not give mankind the strength to shake them off, so as to get his hands on them'." (Crimp, 204) It is here that one finds the actual distinction between the collection in the museum and the concept of the positive countertype of the collector as described by Benjamin. It is through the trading of its objects independently of the material conditions of their own era as well as of the material conditions of the present that the museum constructs cultural history. Though the objects in Benjamin's collection are wrested from history, they are also re-collected consistent with the political perception of the present period. Therefore, historical materialism needs to work in agreement with the history original to every new present. In other words, there should be a consciousness of the present along with the specific and exclusive engagement with the past contingent on such consciousness. It is exactly here that the distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and 'private collection' becomes lucid. Benjamin presents the contemporary 'private' collection as opposed to his 'personal' collection. There is a difficult phenomenon in which the contemporary 'private' collection is accumulated by the 'stupid and passive' collectors whose objects exist for them only insofar as they literally possess and use them. Thus, the 'private' collection is connected to private property which becomes somebody's only if he/she possesses it and it is this 'private' collection or private property which was opposed by Marx. In his article, Walter Benjamin predicted that his 'personal' collection would be taken over by the public collection and the extinction of his 'personal' collection would explain the importance of this collection. The phenomenon of collecting is meaningful when it is personal collection as against the private collection. "The phenomenon of collecting loses its meaning as it loses its personal owner. Even though public collections may be less objectionable socially and more useful academically than private collections, the objects get their due only in the latter. I do know that time is running out for the type that I am discussing here and have been representing before you a bit ex officio. But, as Hegel put it, only when it is dark does the owl of Minerva begin its flight. Only in extinction is the collector comprehended." (Benjamin, 67) Here, Walter Benjamin is referring to the extinction of the 'personal' collector as against the 'private' or public collector. Significantly, the public collections are less obnoxious socially and more useful academically than private collections, though the objects get their due only in the private collections. It may be illustrated by the examples of recent acquisitions of personal collections by the private collectors. In one of the recent acquisitions, Penn State's University Libraries acquired an important collection of Ernest Hemingway correspondence. This set included more than 100 unpublished letters, telegrams, and notes from Hemingway to his family between 1917 and 1957. "The correspondence contains fresh accounts of experiences that he later transformed into fiction, and provides new insights into the course of his relationships with his parents, siblings, wives, and sons. 'This acquisition of family letters of Ernest Hemingway shows us a side of him that the public rarely saw-a devoted and dutiful son and an affectionate and attentive brother,' said William L. Joyce, the Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head of Penn State's Special Collections Library. 'The letters deepen our understanding and humanise this great American writer and display aspects of his personality previously underappreciated.'" (Penn State Libraries acquire Ernest Hemingway correspondence) In short, the recent acquisition of the collection of Ernest Hemingway correspondence by Penn State's University Libraries suggests that the public collections are less obnoxious socially and more useful academically than private collections, though the objects get their due only in the private collections. The implications of a 'private' collection being made 'public' may be best illustrated with some of the pictures from the Davies sisters' collection which are famous for their Impressionist and Post-Impressionist leanings. Significantly, the "works purchased by them can be found in almost all our galleries. Their collection also encompasses two paintings by the workshop of Botticelli, The Disrobing of Christ by El Greco, View in Windsor Great Park by Richard Wilson, five oil paintings by Turner and numerous works by Augustus John... Their first recorded purchase of a work of art was of a watercolour in 1906. They acquired a large number of French drawings and watercolours including fine examples of the work of Cezanne, Daumier, Puvis de Chavannes, Signac and Pissarro." (The Davies Sisters collection) All these works have significant role in the contemporary art culture and, as Walter Benjamin proposed, the position of the personal collector has been taken over by the public collection which has implications to the new generation. The essential distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection becomes lucid here and only in the extinction of the personal collector can the true nature of the term be comprehended. In conclusion, Walter Benjamin's statement that 'Only in extinction is the collector comprehended' has central value in the understanding of the distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection. In other words, it is essential to comprehend the distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and this can best be done best by linking this distinction to collection. The concept of the countertypes of collectors has great implication as it can disentangle the secret historical meanings of things they accrue. Walter Benjamin, in his autobiographical essay "Unpacking My Library", prefigures the termination of collector and postulates that his role as a personal collector will be taken over by the public collection. Here, he draws the essential distinction between 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection. Therefore, he maintains that only in the extinction of the personal collector can the true nature of the term be comprehended and , it is essential to make comprehend the exact meaning of the concept of positive countertype of the collector which helps in distinguishing 'personal' and 'private' and a 'private' collection. Benjamin presents the contemporary 'private' collection as opposed to his 'personal' collection and the contemporary 'private' collection is accumulated by the 'stupid and passive' collectors whose objects exist for them only insofar as they literally possess and use them. Works Cited Benjamin, Walter. Das Passagen-Werk. Vol. 1. (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp). 1982. P 271. Benjamin, Walter. "Unpacking My Library." Illuminations. Harry Zohn. Trans. New York: Schocken Books. 1969. P 67. Crimp, Douglas. "This is not a Museum of Art." On the Museum's Ruins. Douglas Crimp and Louise Lawler. MIT Press. 1995. P 203. Gal, Susan. A semiotics of the public/private distinction. Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. Duke University Press. 2002. 16 Mar, 09. . "Penn State Libraries acquire Ernest Hemingway correspondence." Penn State: The University's Official News Source. 2008. 17 Mar, 2009. . "The Davies Sisters collection." Art. National Museum Wales. 20 Mar, 2009. . Read More