Ever since its first formulation in the 1970s the so called chaos theory has held great appeal for the humanities, philosophy and social sciences. Until the late 1990s many literary studies papers inspired by chaos theory included the observation that only time could tell whether the terminological transfer from physics and mathematics could provide the enrichment for the discipline and about the additional insight into literature gained by the adaptation of the scientific concepts. By now one can state that 'chaos-theoretical' literary studies have produced some insights into literature and many into the field of the literary studies. The adaptation of chaos theory by the literary studies can be seen as a gauge of self-reflection and -observation of the discipline. In presenting some similarities as well as differences between chaos theoretically influenced literary studies and the literary studies under the paradigm of constructivism, the author would like to demonstrate the mechanisms of cultural self-reflection and -assurance by means of the literary studies.
The main purpose of the article is an attempt to demonstrate that spirituality can become one of the more important terms defining culture. We indicate that the so-called new spirituality is a useful term explaining many phenomena in modern culture. We present various contexts and uses of both lexemes, both in the humanities and in social sciences, as well as in non-religious and non-academic contexts. In our approach spirituality is a term of universal and suprareligious nature. It defines human striving for transgression — in and outside religion — both in the social and in the individual dimension, striving in the name of values considered by an individual as higher, positive, good. New spirituality is defined here as related to today’s mediatised and technicised Western culture. It is strongly individual and does not require any institution as its environment. It denotes an area of human life where human beings concentrate on working on their consciousness in cooperation with their corporeality.
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