Reading Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: The Concept of Aura and its varied Implications
Author: Abhay Kumar Mishra
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Abstract
In his literary-critical writings, Walter Benjamin developed the notion of ‘Aura’. ‘Aura’, for
him, is the ‘unique’, ‘here and now’ of a work of art. The industrialization created the atmosphere of mass-
reproduction, leaving the artwork not untouched. With the reproduction of the artwork, the authenticity of
the work of art was gradually eroded. The loss of authenticity went hand in hand with the creation of a
situation, in which the call towards the cultic/ ritualistic value of the ‘original’ was broken. Childhood as the
last aura represents the tension between ‘proximity and distance’. The distance created by the film vis-à-vis
the audience; the masses, prepared the ground for the masses to assume the role of critic. The socio-cultural
transformational value of the destruction of aura represented itself in the mobilization of the masses against
the aesthetics of war engendered by the cult of fuehrer during the epochal stretch of fascism.
Keywords
Aura, Authenticity, Film, Fascism
Conclusion
This paper highlights the relevance of a work of art in terms of its location in the ‘here and now’, which represents
its aura in historical-stretch. The value of the work of art undergoes transformations according to the caesura of
history. For example, in the tradition of the enlightenment, Goethe’s works related to the assertion of humanism. In
our age, Goethe is being interpreted in terms of its potential to address to the questions of the global capital.
Benjamin attached value of aura to the childhood, which is substantiated in the autobiographical writing of his own
childhood in Berlin about the turn of the century. Benjamin contends that the film as an artwork destroys the aura of
action, as on the one hand the actor stands before the constantly changing angles of the camera and on the other
hand his presence is subjected to the incessant edition. However, Benjamin’s thesis of aura carries a positive
moment. Once the aura of a work of art is destroyed, it acquires the capability to suit the demands of history with the
caesura of cultural and social questions. Benjamin does not intend to reduce, in the same vein, the artistic value of
film by its constant ‘cutting’ of the actions, albeit the ‘original actions’, rather he-in a vital posture- underlines his
thesis that film, for the first time, equips the audience, the masses with the critical capacity to reflect on the social
crises. Benjamin, continuing his hope on the masses, emphasizes that the masses as the receiver of the cult, break the
cult (breaking the cult for Benjamin signified the destruction of aura) of fuehrer and act as the agent of history
thwarting the sublimating of the fascistic war.
References
(I). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 220.
(II). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 221.
(III). Fetishism stands for the relationship between people and material objects which allows for the establishment
of the false models of causality for natural events.
(IV). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 225.
(V). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 224.
(VI). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 232.
(VII). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 226.
(VIII). Benjamin, Walter: Little History of Photography.
www.totuusradio.fi/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/benjamin-little-history-of-photography.pdf
(IX). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. P. 211.
(X). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 222.
(XI). Benjamin, Walter: Little history of Photography.
www.totuusradio.fi/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/benjamin-little-history-of-photography.pdf.
(XII). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. 221.
(XIII). Ibid.
(XIV). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. 219.
(XV). “There is no such place for the movie scene that is being shot. Its illusionary nature is that of second degree,
the result of cutting.” Quoted from Benjamin: Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by
Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books. 1968. Print. P. 233.
(XVI). “The film makes the cult value recede into background...by putting the public in the position of critic...”
Quoted from Benjamin, Walter: Illumination. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York:
Schocken Books. 1968. Print. p. 240.
(XVII). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 231.
(XVIII). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 241.
(XIX). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 223.
(XX). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 242.
(XXI). Benjamin, Walter: Illuminations. Edited and with an Introduction by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken
Books. 1968. Print. p. 218.
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Reading Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: The Concept of Aura and its varied Implications
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