Sentence:  The problem of modern subjectivity may be elucidated by way of three images: the <WSD>'thread of life</WSD>', the 'circle' and the 'core'. As for the first image, tradition will have it that the perfect development of individual life follows a continuous course from origin to end, ... this is the image of a more or less consistent theme unfolding throughout a life; historical time being the harmonizer. ... This is the idea of continuity, linking the origin ("arche") and the goal ("telos") of life, ... The postmodernist ... wants to replace it by the image of the severed thread, by the discontinuous and by the fragmentary which never reaches a final fulfilment. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Destiny, fate.