The Dialectics of Modernity and Tradition: Eliot and Adorno on Individualism and the Differentiation of Spheres

Amin Elsherif, Amr

doi:10.21608/jfpsu.2022.100597.1139

	The Dialectics of Modernity and Tradition: Eliot and Adorno on Individualism and the Differentiation of Spheres
مجلة کلية الآداب .جامعة بورسعيد
Article 4, Volume 20, Issue 20, April 2022, Page 1-35 PDF (423.76 K)
Document Type: المقالة الأصلية
DOI: 10.21608/jfpsu.2022.100597.1139
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Author
Amr Amin Elsherif
English Department, Faculty of Arts, Damanhour University, Egypt
Abstract
Modernity comes as a revolution against tradition in order to establish knowledge on a rational ground and set the individual free from its authority. Nevertheless, there is a strong anti-modern return to tradition among many modernist thinkers and writers. Both T. S. Eliot and Theodor W. Adorno formulate the relation between modernity and tradition in dialectical terms. This article argues that Eliot, on the one hand, forms the relation in a positive dialectical way to contain modernity through return to tradition. This imposes its parameters on modern rationality and recreates the same kind of hegemonic society against which modernity revolts. Adorno, on the other hand, analyzes the negative dialectical reversion of modern rationalism against itself and its liberatory potential which subjects all fields, including tradition, to its domination. Rather than imposing one on the other, this study proposes an unreconciled, non-coercive form of coexistence in a pluralistic culture in order to move beyond this impasse. Instead of subjecting one to the other, each may provide a critical perspective on the other. جاءت الحداثة بسعيها لتأسيس المعرفة على أساس عقلاني وتحرير الفرد من السلطوية کثورة على التراث. إلا أن ذلک قام بتحفيز تيار مناهض للحداثة يسعى لاستعادة التراث بين العديد من الکتاب والمفکرين الحداثيين. والسبب في ذلک هو حالة الخواء الروحاني وتفسخ وحدة المجتمع اللتين أدت إليها العقلانية الحداثية. نظر توماس ستيرنز إليوت وثيودور أدورنو للعلاقة بين التراث والحداثة على أنها علاقة جدلية. تسعى هذه الدراسة لإثبات أن إليوت قام بتشکيل العلاقة على أنها جدل إيجابي لکي يحتوي الحداثة عن طريق التراث. على العکس من ذلک، قام أدورنو بتحليل الجدل السلبي للعقلانية الحداثية وسجل انقلابها لنقيضها، إلا أنه أصر على تحليل التراث تحليلا عقلانيا. من خلال إثبات تحول کلا من التراث والحداثة لشکلين مختلفين من السلطوية، تسعى هذه الدراسة لتقديم شکل من أشکال التعايش المشترک يحطم هيمنتهما، دون فرض أي منها على الآخرفي مجتمع تعددي.
Keywords
T. S. Eliot; Theodor W. Adorno; Modernity; Individualism; the Differentiation of Spheres; Negative Dialectics; Tradition; ثيودور أدورنو; إليوت; الحداثة; الفردية; تمايز مجالات القيمة; الجدل السلبي; التراث


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