تاريخ ادبي و بحران در استنباط معناي معاصر

Essays History of Literature and the Crisis in the Meaning of the Word "contemporary"

The main question addressed in this paper concerns the meaning of "contemporary" and its difference with "modern" and "recent". The term contemporary seems to be used in three different meanings: modern as against traditional; existing during our period; and alive and existing at the present time. The writer discusses each of these meanings to show the difficulties the historians of contemporary literature are faced with. The writer then discusses the difficulties of writing the history of contemporary literature and argues that some of these difficulties explain the conservativeness of the academic criticism. The writer then suggests that "the contemporary literature" be used to refer to the last ten years.