The Notre Dame Aura
The 21st century Notre Dame will possess what cultural Marxist Walter Benjamin defined as an aura, albeit one that requires some modification from Benjamin’s initial description. Aura as Benjamin defines it in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is the unique existence of a work of art in space and time. Photographs and movies, for example, do not possess this trait like the paintings of the past do, as these modern, technological forms of art do not exist in a single place at any given time, but instead can be viewed and experienced in identical manners across space and time. There is no single original photograph or movie to view; there is only one Mona Lisa. As photography became more popularly used as an artform during what Benjamin describes as the “age of mass production,” aura withers away. Notre Dame prior to the fire possessed an aura as described by Benjamin, as will the Notre Dame that exists after “re”-construction occurs. Many of the people who support building this new Notre Dame with the intention of making it appear an exact replica of the old one are attempting to recreate the aura that the pre-fire Notre Dame possessed.
Benjamin writes that the same work of art can possess a different aura in different spaces and times, that “tradition [of a work of art] itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable,” as is, subsequently, the aura. However, he does not write of an attempt to recreate an aura possessed by a work of art that is no longer in existence; he does not write of attempts to recapture auras that have vanished due to the destruction of art. A single Notre Dame Cathedral had existed in Paris, and a single Notre Dame Cathedral will exist after the French finish construction. However, this newly constructed Notre Dame Cathedral is not the original. Many if not most of its walls will not be the ones that have experienced the history of France as President Macron described it. Although the fire destroyed the majority of the physical Notre Dame, this Notre Dame of the past will exist in the minds of many within the Notre Dame of the future. This new Notre Dame will surely serve as a manifestation of the Notre Dame Cathedral as historical icon. It will possess, then, an artificial aura, one that exists as a form of representation rather than actual experience.
It appears, at least through President Macron’s statements, that this new Notre Dame already possesses the aura of the destroyed Notre Dame, perhaps only augmented by the fire. Continuing to reason along this line of logic, the fire did not extinguish the Notre Dame aura, but rather added to it through the history gained by Notre Dame as it is rebuilt from the ashes. It may appear that this pseudo-phoenix transformation occurs once the promise of a new Notre Dame exists–once President Macron declares that a new Notre Dame will be built.
However, this in itself is a false representation. There existed no complete, physical Notre Dame when President Macron made his statement to France, regardless of what has existed in the past or what was promised to exist in the future; if it is not the physical building itself that contains this aura, then perhaps it is somehow present at the site. The “space” where the Notre Dame Cathedral once stood is so intertwined with the history of Notre Dame itself that it exists as a “space” with the meaning of Notre Dame containing within itself the significant components of the “idea” of the Notre Dame Cathedral. However, if this were true, then there would be no factor driving the rebuilding of Notre Dame; if the aura and significance of Notre Dame no longer requires a physical cathedral, there would be no incentive and no calls to build another. Putting aside the argument of when exactly the aura of the new Notre Dame would manifest itself (e.g. when construction begins, when the building resembles a cathedral, or when Notre Dame is fully finished and reopened to the public), there nevertheless exists a period in which the Notre Dame aura “vanishes.” The site where Notre Dame once stood therefore does not create the aura of Notre Dame in and of itself.
Appearance Over Reality
Simply building a cathedral where Notre Dame once stood is not an attempt to physically recreate Notre Dame as it existed; it is the attempted rebuilding of Notre Dame with the belief that it will constitute the same significance in French society, if only a significance enhanced by the fire and rebuilding, that implies an attempted recreation of aura. It would appear, then, that the moniker and terminology associated with this new cathedral shapes the belief surrounding its significance: Macron does not simply state that the French will build a cathedral where Notre Dame once stood, but rather he asserts that the French will rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral.
With the building of a new cathedral, the French are attempting to recreate an aura that has vanished. Calling a soon-to-be constructed cathedral “Notre Dame” where the pre-burnt Notre Dame once stood with the belief that it will inhabit the same significance in the French consciousness highlights how society emphasizes appearances over reality. Monikers and rhetoric outweigh the physical disappearance of the cathedral.
Marxist Guy DeBord focuses on society’s increased emphasis on representation as opposed to reality in The Society of the Spectacle. He argues that society has begun to value representation through images, rather than the actual, physical existence or being of a thing: “All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.” Marx asserted in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts that all senses in systems of private property ownership, or in capitalism as he experienced it, \”…have been replaced by the simple alienation of them all, the sense of having.” During earlier stages of capitalism, society moved from emphasizing being to having, and there is now a “generalized shift from having to appearing,” according to DeBord.
This societal shift is certainly evident in the beliefs surrounding the cathedral that will be constructed at the Notre Dame site. The site itself does not create Notre Dame in society’s eyes, nor does the existence of a cathedral at the site. Rather, naming a constructed cathedral where Notre Dame burnt down “Notre Dame” results in society viewing the building as a rebuilding and this new cathedral as a recreation or extension of the Notre Dame cathedral of the past. If there exists “a” Notre Dame–not necessarily “the” Notre Dame–then this new cathedral takes the place of the old in the eyes of society; it becomes what the old Notre Dame once was. However, Notre Dame as it existed is forever gone and attempting to build a new cathedral–even if an attempt to create a replica of Notre Dame–creates only the appearance of a Notre Dame where the original existed.