Theoretical Perspectives on Media and Modernity

Abstract

My line of argument is informed by Husserl’s phenomenological approach that distinguishes between life worlds and theoretical worlds, and Victor Turner’s approach that makes the distinction between analytical and metaphorical constructs. The bottom line of both arguments is that an analytical concept or a life world, such as law, can be defined, analyzed, and expanded; while a metaphorical one or a theoretical word like modernity cannot be. The former is dissociated from the intellectual interpretation of the world; while the latter is build into it.