There was a short discussion of aura some time ago. While reading Adorno, A Political Biography, I found the following: "The concept of the "aura" of the work of art had been coined i the years around 1900 and was based on the assumption that a work radiated a quality that was to be mirrored by a cultic and emotional response. The concept came into use at a time when the status of works of art and the cultural tradition in general was being called into question within the field of tension created by historicism, modernity, and mass culture. Initially it seems to have been only clairvoyants and theosophists who used the term 'aura' to describe a subtle emanation of the body that was imagined as having one or more colors and which, it was believed, would provide information about the essence of an individual. The circle of writers associated with Stefan George then began to use the concept of the aura to articulate its disquiet at the way in which th world had lost its mystique, a developement that was felt above all as the loss of cultic authority, which ancient artefacts had suffered by being placed in museums. Benjamin took up the concept around 1930 and redefined it: setting out from the works of avant garde artists,especially Dadaism,glass architecture, Brecht's epic theatre,photomontage amd mass culture,he predicted shifts in the concept of art....."
Stefan George started out as part of the circle around Mallarme,returned to Germany, and wrote poetry with a strong tilt towards Greek classicism. It was privately published in a special typeface with peculiar orthography. He had a forceful personality and a group coalesced around him. This background doesn't really support 'aura' as a serious concept pf aesthetics. Kate Sullivan ************** Plan your next getaway with AOL Travel. Check out Today's Hot 5 Travel Deals! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212416248x1200771803/aol?redir=http://travel.aol.com/discount-travel?ncid=emlcntustrav 00000001)
