A Crisis of Culture according to George Steiner’s theory

Abstract

The article deals with the crisis of contemporary culture. The author asks several important questions especially those that concern a condition of today's culture. Is it true that contemporary Western culture is in crisis, and if so, why? What are the symptoms of this crisis? The answer to these questions is sought in the concept of culture by George Steiner, whose research are an attempt to diagnose the disintegration of modern society and the collapse of traditional values of the West. According to Steiner, as the author of the text explains, this crisis manifests itself primarily in the crisis of “a word”. Although we have been “shaped” in the Hellenic-Hebrew tradition, which is, after all, textual, today we tend to forget about our origins. Moreover, the modern science seeks to formalize the humanities and omits the most important aspect of our humanity – the very human need for transcendence, which is present in a word. Today, deconstruction and adoration for emptiness prevails. That is why the condition of today's culture can be well defined by the concept of post-culture.