Everyday Temporality as a Foundation of the Semantic Unity of Culture

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to substantiate the thesis that everyday temporality, as a particular form of perceiving and experiencing time, is the source and foundation of the semantic unity of culture. Examining the ontological characteristics of the everyday, this study aims to address the pressing issue of defining the foundations and criteria of cultural unity as a guarantor of cultural identity. This stated goal is realized by identifying the methodological and heuristic potential of the chronotope concept. A brief reconstruction of its semantic content enables us to introduce the idea of the chronotope of culture and define it as a form of semantic integration of spatial and temporal coordinates, ensuring the subject’s entry into the space of cultural meanings, where time, as heterochrony, plays a leading role. Identifying the role of time in the formation of cultural identity shifts the focus of the research to everyday temporality as a specific form of experiencing time that links personal existential time with cultural time within the chronotope of culture. Thus, the article proposes everyday temporality as a key organizing principle of the cultural chronotope, thereby offering a new perspective on the foundations of cultural semantic unity.