The Concept of Aura in Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The Concept of Aura in Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54855/csl.26616Keywords:
Aura, Mechanical Reproduction, Authenticity, Here and Now , Exhibition ValueAbstract
This article examines the concept of aura in Walter Benjamin’s aesthetic thought, particularly in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. The author clarifies that aura is not merely a distinctive quality of an artwork, but also a unique mark attached to the “here and now” existence of an object within a specific space and time. Through discussions of traditional art, photography, and cinema, the article shows how technological reproduction, mass production, and modern media have transformed human perception of art. Reproductions may imitate the image, material, and external form of an artwork, but they cannot reproduce the unique aesthetic experience generated by aura. Therefore, the decline of aura is presented as a sign of broader changes in culture, art, and human sensibility in the technological age.
References
Thư mục tham khảo
Arnheim, Rudolf. Film As Art. London: University of California Press, 1957. Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations- Essays and reflections. Edited by Hannah Arendt.
Translated by Harry Zohn. New York : Schoken Books , 1968.
—. On Hashish. Translated by Howard Eiland & others. London : The Belknap Press, 2006.
—. On Photography. Translated by Esther Leslie. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2015.
—. The colour of experience . London : Routledge , 1998.
Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility." Grey Room (The MIT Press) 39 (2010): 11-38.
—. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, 4: 1938–1940. Edited by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings. Belknap Press, 2006.
D'Haeyere, Steven Jacobs and Hilde. "Frankfurter Slapstick: Benjamin, Kracauer, and Adorno on American Screen Comedy." October Magazine (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 160 (2017): 30–50.
Duhamel, Georges. Scènes de la vie future. Paris : Mille et une nuits, 2003.
Ferris, David S. The Cambridge Introduction to Walter Benjamin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Goodman, Nelson. Languages of Art. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1968.
Hansen, Miriam Bratu. "Benjamin’s Aura." Critical Inquiry (The University of Chicago Press) 34 (2008): 336-375.
Hansen, Miriam. Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor
W. Adorno. University of California Press, 2012.
Kant, Immanuel. Phê Phán Lý Trí Thuần Túy -tập 1. Dịch bởi Bùi Văn Nam Sơn. Hà Nội : NXB Văn Học , 2014.
Krauss, Rosalind. "A Note on Photography and the Simulacral." October (The MIT Press) 31 (1984): 49-68.
Peim, Nick. "Walter Benjamin in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Aura in Education: A Rereading of ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’." Journal of Philosophy of Education (Edgbaston) 41, no. 3 (2007): 363-380.
Quint, L. Pierre. L'art Cinématographique. Librairie Félix Alcan, 1927.
Rochlitz, Rainer. The Disenchantment of Art: The Philosophy of Walter Benjamin. Translated by Jane Marie Todd. New York: Guilford Press, 1995.
Singerman, Howard. Art History, After Sherrie Levine. Lodon: University of California Press, 2011.
—. Art History, After Sherrie Levine. London : University of California Press, 2011.
—. Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University. University of California Press, March 1999.
Sơn, Mai. 101 Triết Gia . TPHCM : NXB Tri Thức, 2007.
Sudheer, Meera. Thehindu.com. February 15, 2020. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/humanoids-and-the-erosion-of-aura/article30829743.ece (accessed February 3, 2021).
Thi, Lm Nguyễn Hữu. Lm Nguyễn Hữu Thi, Lịch sử Triết học Tây Phương- Từ thời Cổ đại đến ngày nay. Trung Tâm Mục Vụ Công Giáo Việt Nam , n.d.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 JB Nguyễn Phi Long, S.J.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, in a journal or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
