Traditions of the Modern : A Corrupt View

At this fin-de-siècle, the “post” that was meant to mark off the modern, or perhaps to qualify it, has turned out to be a looking-glass of sorts, reviving engagements with the question of modernity. However, lurking in the shadows of this discourse is the “constitutive outside” that makes possible such narratives: tradition. In this article, I explore the question of modernity through the trope of tradition. I focus on three guises of the modern. The first is a rigidly dualistic narrative that has long marked off the traditional from the modern. Taking hold during the last fin-de-siècle, this is an unshakably teleological and Eurocentric modern that has woven its way through quite a bit of the social and political theory of the twentieth century. Second, I investigate the possibility of multiple modernities. I mean this not simply in terms of a globalized modern, diverse in its localizations, but as a modernity that is inherently and inevitably tainted. Third, consideration of such corruptions leads to a brief discussion of epistemological and ontological challenges. Drawing upon contemporary critical theory, I offer the “post” not as the end of intellectual traditions, but as a surplus present within the modern itself. It is my hope that this view of, and from, a corrupt modern will open up new allegories — beyond those of deaths and endings.