Vichianism: The Italian (Counter-) Enlightenment

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course looks at the reception of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), whose philosophy, largely neglected at first, eventually came to enjoy far-reaching influence as European thinkers set out on repeated quests for the source of a different "modernity" or "Counter-Enlightenment" in fields as varied as political theory (Romagnosi, Cattaneo, Ferrari), the historical and modernist novel (Cuoco, Manzoni, Joyce), Romantic historiography (Michelet, Gioberti), literary criticism (Auerbach), and intellectual history (Berlin). What is the secret behind the enduring appeal of Vico's anti-rationalist stance? This seminar, going further than dedicating itself to the legacy of a single thinker, wishes to investigate the "logic" (or lack thereof) that attends posthumous acclaim, eponymity, and etiological myths, and to provide guidelines for a disciplined approach to the history, practice, and theory of reception.