The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is a 1935/1936 essay by German cultural critic Walter Benjamin, which has been influential in the fields of culture theory and media theory.

It is the most often read of Benjamin s texts and although it is commonly referred to as The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction , a better translation of the title would be The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility .

= Key concepts=

== Aura ==

Walter Benjamin used the term aura to refer to the feeling of awe created by unique or remarkable objects such as Work (fine arts) or relics of the past. According to Benjamin older cultures can generate auras around particular objects of veneration, while capitalism culture has the opposite effect, causing the decay of the aura due to the proliferation of mass production and Reproduction (disambiguation) technologies.

= Complete text of essay =

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