The «discipline of bodies and texts»: Edward W. Said, reader of Vico

Abstract

Starting from Said's critical definition of 'humanism' and its sources in literary criticism (Auerbach) and political theory (Gramsci), this study aims to show the originality of Said's approach to Vico insofar as the 'texts' are referred to the contrasts and struggles from which they emerged. The Neapolitan philosopher recognises the centrality of the 'vulgar' physical circumstances of his own intellectual biography and of the ancient fables, marred and corrupted, such as those received from Homer. For the American scholar of Palestinian origin, retracing the history of culture from a philological perspective means reconstructing the interweavings between different and antagonistic traditions such as those between the Arab, Jewish and Christian worlds against the distortion of sacred and profane documents daily operated by the languages of power and the media.