Aura

In the context of Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s argument, the aura appears in relation to the way in which goods are taken from their points of origin, which causes the loss of a “local presence.” The auratic uniqueness of formerly inaccessible and distant locales becomes compromised by the mass accessibility of railroad travel. For Schivelbusch, “notions of spatial-temporal presence and distance were integral parts of Benjamin’s concept of the aura” (41). Benjamin refers to the aura as a “unique phenomenon of distance” in which social alterations of perceived distances cause the destruction of the aura (668). For Benjamin “the desire of contemporary masses to bring things ‘closer’ spatially and humanly” constitutes one of the fundamental social bases for decay of the aura (669). The alteration of spatial relationships and social barriers of access are integral to the transformations described by Schivelbusch. However, the alteration of these spaces is necessarily dual in nature; defined both by diminishment (of transport time) and expansion (of the transport network) (Schivelbusch 35). The spatial alterations inherent to the social destruction of the aura are also defined by a notable contradiction: the opening up to newly accessible spaces coincides with the annihilation of in-between space (Schivelbusch 37). The dual and contradictory transformations of spatial relationships by railroad travel appear to be reflective of the contradictions within the aura itself as described by Benjamin. He ambivalently describes the destruction of the aura as both ripe with revolutionary potential and vulnerable to commoditized exploitation.