THE SUBLIME AND AURA

Abstract

The author analyzes the concept of the sublime as it has been used by Lyotard who bases it in Kant and Burke. Lyotard uses the concept for characterization of avant-garde art after the second world war which, in his view, best exemplifies the modern (and modernist) art. In the second art of the article the author deals with the concept of aura in Benjamin and searches for common features among the concepts of the aura and the sublime. Both of them concern our relation to the object which is not necessarily or primarily an artwork. In the closing part the author applies both concepts to postmodernist art and concludes that in such artworks the relation of the aura and the sublime has emerged in a new light, for the subjectivity which, in the past, was hypothesized both on the side of the author (the artist) and the audience is now limited to the audience. This transformation is illustrated well by Foucault's replacement of the notion of the document with that of the monument.