Publikacija SEP 2011 - Vilenica

(which is a rather wide field of discussion, concerning virtually everyone
involved in its making) – a reproduced work without aura. In his
essay, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit
(The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction), Benjamin
says: “In general, we could say that the reproduction technique detaches
the reproduced object from tradition. By making multiple reproductions,
it substitutes the unique phenomenon of an artistic work with
the common.” 5 That is why I believe a poetry performance should be
viewed in the light of its uniqueness, auratics, when the author, through
reading, through his or her voice, stress, intonation, through interpretation,
performs the poem in all its authenticity. We live in a time when
it is popular to make the best of charts; it is interesting to note that some
contemporary poets were also excellent interpreters and their interpretations
have stayed for good. In Slovene poetry tradition, these poets are
Dane Zajc, Tomaž Šalamun and Jure Detela, and among foreign poets,
I will definitely always remember the performance of the late Danish
poet Inger Christensen, as well as the Polish poet Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn
Dycki and the Irish poet Gearoid McLaughlin, who appeared at the
Vilenica Festival.
VI. Conclusion: Indirect Knowledge of Literature vs Poetry
Performance – Poetry’s Added Value
Apart from its auratic aspect, a literary performance has another
important dimension: the author’s performance is a resistance against
indirect knowledge of literature. In the world of information (in this
case on books and therefore, on a particular literary work) and mass
production of books, we are condemned to indirect knowledge of literature,
which, however, is not a new phenomenon in history. In one
of his interviews, Roger Chartier mentions that Don Quixote was the
first literary work that people knew without having read it. Today,
5 Walter Benjamin: Izbrani spisi, (prevod Frane Jerman … e tal., SH, Ljubljana 1998, p. 151);
Slovene translation [Translator's note].
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