Abstract

Contemporary cultural production and questions about the nature of contemporaneity itself have become dominant in recent humanities scholarship but just what is ‘the contemporary’? When did the contemporary begin? When will it end? So began the Call for Papers for this latest edition of Dandelion, in a mail-out that, by chance, coincided with the United States presidential election. The next morning,we received our first response: The Contemporary ended last night, November 8th 2016. Kind regards Donald Trump’s crisis-ridden presidency has rumbled on for the duration of this issue’s production and the escalating tumult of British politics has similarly fed into our discussions as to how to approach the theme of the contemporary in times like these. Should we apprehend the contemporary as a noun, offering definition and order to a discrete period in history; or is it rather as an adjective, traced with a particular structure of feeling, an apprehension to what is happening Now and an anxiety towards what comes next?

How to Cite:

Sykes, R. & Travers, T., (2017) “Editorial”, Dandelion: Postgraduate Arts Journal and Research Network 8(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ddl.358