1. Everything that is unfolding at the present time taking modern standards as a reference, that is, that corresponds to the present or to a period close to it.
2. People or events that lived/occurred at the same time.
Etymology: by latin contemporaryrooted in the verb contemporarebuilt from the prefix with-in meeting property, accompanied by temp-regarding tempus, temporisas to ‘time’, and the suffix -aneusowned property.
Grammatical category: Adjective.
in syllables: contemporary.
Contemporary
Karina Mora Mendoza
PhD in History
The contemporary are the processes that occur between those who live and the time in which they live in their present moment. Although historiography has genuinely made temporary cuts on the history of humanity, where it has considered that the period between the French Revolution and the Latin American independence and our days, is what can be understood as contemporary or contemporary world, to that first rationality about the meaning we must add other nuances that help us understand that the contemporary is also a construction, like many others, of the social world.
The enunciations about what we yearn to express from what happens in our days cannot be summed up to the simplicity of the passing of time -as a mechanical form-, it must be assumed as the experience of that present moment that at the same time is the present experience of all others, and the ability to be aware of that complexity of relationships. What alludes to the contemporary refers to what is for me in the now, and is also for the rest of humanity.
There is a fracture between those who, as authors, as artists, as creators -in the broadest sense of the word- and of course as simple human beings must manage to understand the time that surrounds them and simultaneously go through life from that place. Only those who can understand this complexity can speak of the contemporary world, because in order to understand it, they must not live immersed in the innocuousness of their days without conceiving that not only time passes, but also that their consciousness passes along with that of many. further. Those who coincide too much with the identity of their time, with that era, which are intertwined to the imperceptible, will not be able to notice the contemporary. It is impossible, because as I said, for this, the awareness of the separation between said parallel existences is needed.
Is the contemporary a simile of the marvelous?
This is undoubtedly the main issue of the meanings around the contemporary. Understanding the contemporary as an adjective of a time, of a moment of life, has nothing to do with avant-garde sparks or knowing the most popular places of the moment. Understanding the contemporary has much more to do with the ability to look at the social threads woven in the anesthesia of days, unravel them and understand why they were woven in the first place, observe where the threads come from, where the looms are and, above all, everything, how that braiding is part of the world, yes, contemporary.
It is not only the light, but also the darkness that surrounds us. Assuming ourselves as, for example, contemporary historians would have to do with the ability to understand how our trade has or does not have a place in the collective mentality, in the institutions and structures of society and has less or nothing to do with looking for what kind of narrative, theme, or topic could be “in” and so write and be “contemporary.” Even more important is to understand that all this has to do with the possibility of choice. Whoever is not aware of this, who cannot make a conscious choice is, without a doubt, who cannot speak of contemporaneity, therefore, they would speak, in any case, of life.
When does the contemporary begin and when does it end?
If you doubt this has to do with the formal rationality of knowledge, and historical knowledge in particular. That is, the divisions are totally a subjective bias that is nourished by certain events and characteristics that help generate those distinctions. So, as I mentioned before, in theory the contemporary begins with the French Revolution in 1789, but when does it end? The answer could be that we live in this stage every day, but it will be necessary for, in future processes, an event to occur that others, generations that perhaps do not yet exist and that in the coming times will turn to the past looking for its great breaks or ruptures and, like other historical divisions, are an imposition of perceptions alien to the experience of one’s own daily life in historical time. In this way, all moments in history contain a contemporary world that is lived on a daily basis, although very few are capable of abstracting a deep reflection of what competes, characterizes and gives identity to a moment of the existence of society.
It is important to mention that it is a vision of what is or is not contemporary, it is the western vision of the understanding of history. It would be necessary to observe how this concept is constituted and internalized in the societies of the non-Western world, which currently constitutes more than half of the world population.
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