ABSTRACT
No tradition, intellectual or otherwise, can exist or stay alive without demarcating its own identity from something that is seen as representing its negative counterpart, its ‘other’; and as a result, this ‘other’ necessarily accompanies any tradition, as the shadowy background or dark canvas which allows it to draw the contours of its own identity in the first place. The presence of this shadow can therefore never be forgotten; but in order to fulfill its role as a negative background, neither can it be brought into the full daylight of memory and recollection. In short, it must be selectively remembered and selectively forgotten.
