ABSTRACT
This text opens up a space for debate on the possibilities of justice in the media age. Relatedly, the book is an invitation to develop modes of research, of reading and of writing, that are apposite to the challenges of today. The very offering of such an invitation begs the following question, duly to be considered in this postscript: what does it mean for a text to be 'addressed to the contemporary?' This question is central to the legitimacy of studies in the humanities and social sciences, raising imperatives to which all must respond. Regrettably, reflection upon this issue is often limited to the narrow matter of relevance to the policymaker's agenda. Framed in this way, the properly open character of the question is forestalled. So, to restore the breadth of the question, it is asked, just what does it mean for a text to be addressed to the contemporary? The word 'contemporary' is of common parlance, and is typically used quite casually. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider some definitions. The term 'contemporary' is derived from the Latin, its prefix stemming from com- and its suffix from -tempus. The word hence connects 'being with' and 'time'. An initial definition might describe the contemporary as 'that which belongs to the same times'. In this way, 'the contemporary' would specify that which lives or happens at the same time as another person or event, that which is coeval with somebody or something. In vernacular usage, the term strongly privileges notions of the present, and of being 'there' at the same time as others. Thus arises the understanding of 'my contemporary' as one who dwells with me in this present, one who is here with me now, at this current moment of history. Consequently, the idea of the contemporary is heavily laden with the sense of being together at present, and hence of belonging in time. There are two further meanings of the term. These are not alternative meanings, for each time one invokes 'the contemporary', they come into force. First of all then, the notion of the contemporary denotes that which is characteristic of the latest, the novel and the innovative. It is the sign under which is written both that which has just arrived, and that which is imminent, in this way projecting the promise of the new forward into an imagined future. The contemporary is on the cusp, one might say, of what is and of what is about to be. There is something of an unspoken promise about it. A third meaning is that the contemporary indexes what is relevant to its time, what is appropriate or apposite. It specifies what matters and what may be deemed immaterial at a certain time, it bears implicit notions of those who matter, those who count, and can be counted upon to adjudicate. Upon this notion depends the judgement of a text as timely, as apposite, and as well placed in its time. Placing these three levels of meaning together, one sees that the vernacular of the 'contemporary' combines notions of belonging in time, of the futural promise of the new, and of what strikes as salient. Together, these three apply a potent illocutionary force to any evocation of the contemporary.
