Phainomena (Jun 2020)
What is Aura?
Abstract
The article discusses some of the key notions of Walter Benjamin’s famous essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936). The author emphasizes that the importance of Benjamin’s work with regard to the question of “aura” in the contemporary, post-modern constellations of the cultural logic of late capitalism lies in the idea of reading, writing, talking, thinking, and watching films. This can perhaps serve as a model for “saving our souls” in the age of nihilism, epitomized by the mass media of communications, i.e., the informational-communicational paradigm.
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