INTRODUCTION. TEMPORAL CROSSROADS: EDITORIALREFLECTIONS ON THE GRAMMAR OF TIME

Abstract

Time represents one of the most universal dimensions characterising human experience. Meanwhile, it is a culturally differentiated phenomenon. Every civilization, religious tradition, philosophical system, and social order develop their own understanding of binary phenomena relating to time and interpreting it – continuity and change, memory and anticipation, cyclical return and historical progression. These differing temporal frameworks form the grounds that enable the cultures to organize their individual experiences, as well as collective life.

This special issue of Cultural Crossroads, The Grammar of Time: Ontologies and Practices Across Cultures contains articles by scholars representing diverse intellectual traditions and geographical contexts. Here, they explore the ways how time is conceptualized, experienced, represented, narrated, and regulated across cultures. These contributions approach temporality from a wide spectrum of views that encompasses philosophy, religious studies, linguistics, literary criticism, media studies, political thought, anthropology, and visual culture.