Snares of Migrant Modernity

Abstract

This study aims to sharpen one’s understanding of the “modern,” and examine the concept of modernism in art, philosophy, and sociology. It identifies the fundamental features of modernity, and exposes the snares that modernism sets for itself, erecting barricades while simultaneously taking the plunge into realms that are awash with teeming humanity. The nature of modernism, whether contextual or in the absolute, is detailed in a deliberate effort to outline the history of modernism, tracking its beginning, development, maturation, and eclipse. Modernism is also considered outside of its specific spatial and temporal circumstances, thus examining “Arab modernism” through symbols that some attempted to embed within Arab society. The author also explores the problems arising from Arab modernism and its relation to the Arab context and cultural epoch. He concludes that modernism is a term of art, chiseled with great care and attention, to describe a specific historical era, differentiating Western civilization in view of the changes that transformed the West’s material and spiritual environment and creating the technical, science based society that has contributed to realizing significant gains for humanity, in general, and the West, in particular. The author stresses, however, that it has also produced significant problems that have led to the emergence of currents resistant to “the Western line of reasoning”.