“Letizia cattolica, antico-europea”? Qualche osservazione sulla “letteratura” secondo Vico tra repubblica delle lettere e mondo delle nazioni

• Main Author: Stefania Sini
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) 2016-12-01
• Series: Laboratorio dell'ISPF
• Subjects: G. Vico; Literature; Arcadia
• Online Access: http://www.ispf-lab.cnr.it/2016_SNS.pdf

[“Old-time European and Catholic cheerfulness”? Some notes on “literature” by Giambattista Vico between the Republic of Letters and World of Nations]. Grounded on a perspective combining history, rhetoric and literature, this essay examines those aspects in the work and thought of Vico that fit into the classicistic paradigm of “literature” (at a time when this term did not have the same meaning as we give it today) in its configuration of old-time Europe: a paradigm where the rules of rhetoric, of polished style and of arts co-exist in a timeless contemporaneity. Focusing on Vico’s “minor” works (epigraphs, and celebratory poetic compositions), this essay shows how Vico’s arcadic experience can be seen as an important moment in the direction of a new conception of literature.