As regular readers will know, I'm very interested in tradition. OK, I'm obsessed by tradition.
Today I found myself mulling over the phrase "in the tradition of...". What does it mean, exactly?
For instance, there's often talk about Kingston-upon-Hull's tradition of poetry. Philip Larkin is the big name, along with Andrew Marvell. There's also Stevie Smith and a good few others. Anyway, a surprising number of celebrated poets are associated with Hull.
But is this really a tradition? Or is it just a coincidence? Or can a coincidence be a tradition?
Conversely, I remember someone pointing out how the Harry Potter books (and films) are very much in the tradition of Enid Blyton. But this does seem to be a tradition in a more causative sense. Rowling was a huge fan of Enid Blyton in her girlhood.
More importantly, perhaps, is anybody exercised by such questions other than me?
at least etymologically the word tradition means handed down, which seems to imply a conscious action on the giver side. but of course language can be stretched, and maybe it makes sense to speak of someone adopting a tradition, as well (even though etymologically it makes no sense). personally i would prefer to say 'in the style of' for the Rowling/Blyton example, and to refer to a 'scene' for the Hull example ('the Hull scene' sounds cool to me).
ReplyDelete.Laeth
Those are some very good points. Hand on heart, I was actually pondering the phrase "handed down" today, as well. It's very interesting, and poetic!
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