Considering tradition and its discourses: the polysemy of the problem Cover Image

Wobec tradycji i jej dyskursów: wieloznaczność problemu
Considering tradition and its discourses: the polysemy of the problem

Author(s): Joanna Hańderek
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: tradition; heritage; construct; transmission; culture; identity

Summary/Abstract: The article will analyse the meaning and understanding of tradition. What I will attempt to accomplish, by reference to Rorty, Foucault, Appadurai, Geertz and postcolonial theorists, is to show that tradition is a unique type of construct. It is a construct dependent on history, conditions of temporality, understanding and needs of human being; social attitude and maturity. Such a view of tradition is understood as a composition of different ideas, which not only shape the participants of social life but which are shaped by them as well. This text will stress the importance of postmodern and poststructural meaning of tradition, as these schools of philosophical thought gave rise to deconstruction and the critical approach towards phenomena and categories, previously considered invariable. These two movements free the understanding of tradition from previous constraints, showing that it is just another narration of cultural understanding of reality. A proposition is thus made to consider studying tradition through understanding how it is formed and how it affects the present. I will try to show how a changing tradition allows the human being to adapt him/herself to his /her everydayness, not only providing a possibility of cultural foundation but also allowing a dialogue with different types of cultural life.

  • Issue Year: 15/2014
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 1-17
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish