One Character in Search of an Author

The philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668–1740) has had an interesting posthumous fate. He was ignored in his lifetime and seldom read by later mainstream philosophers. Though his ideas have surged up at various moments in history, he has never been at the center of a philosophical school. It has instead been poets and novelists who have kept his ideas alive and current.

In this book, Dustin Peone explores the literary history of Vico. Five works are examined in which Vico appears as an actual character: James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Immortal,” Carlos Fuentes’ Terra Nostra, Georges Ngal’s Giambatista Viko, and Ernst Jünger’s Eumeswil. Peone considers each of these works as a “literary commentary” on Vico’s philosophy. This novel approach illustrates the reciprocal relationship between philosophy and literature while shining a new light on Vico’s ideas and demonstrating their continuing relevance.

Praise for Vico and Literature

“Dustin Peone’s brilliant book studies the poetical metamorphoses of Vico’s philosophy in some of the most important works of modern world literature: Joyce, Borges, Fuentes, Jünger, and Ngal. With his astonishing insights into the grandiose creative appropriations of the New Science by the great poets, Peone demonstrates the inspirational power of Vico’s philosophy and opens completely new perspectives for our understanding of Vico. Reading these elegant and ingenious philosophical analyses is a great intellectual pleasure.”

Jürgen Trabant (Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Institute for Romance Philology, Free University of Berlin)

“In a time when every certainty seems to waver, Dustin Peone returns to the thought of Giambattista Vico, who was among the first to perceive the peril of barbarism and the need to resist it through the wisdom of history. With critical finesse, Peone restores Vico’s authentic voice, showing how literature has transformed him into a living character, still able to shed light on our present.”

Riccardo Gasperina Geron (Associate Professor of Contemporary Italian Literature, University of Bologna)

“From the title’s playful Pirandello reference to its punning on “Vico vico” – literature as a “little road” to Vico – this impressive study makes an intriguing claim: that the “poetic wisdom” explored by Vico in the New Science is on full display in novels by Jorge Luis Borges, Georges Ngal, Ernst Jünger and others in which Vico appears as a character. Fantasia, not only critical commentary, is shown to be an appropriately Vichian way of penetrating the great thinker’s hidden depths. Judicious, hugely well-read, and original.”

Timothy Brennan (Distinguished University Teaching Professor, University of Minnesota)

About the Author

Dustin Peone is Instructor of Philosophy at Georgia State University, Perimeter College. His books include Memory as Philosophy, Shame, Fame, and the Technological Mentality, and Making Philosophy Laugh.

Preface

Introduction
1. Vico’s New Science of the Nations
2. Vico’s New Science of Poetics
3. The Irish Vico: James Joyce
4. The Irish Vico: James Joyce (Continued)
5. The Immortal Vico: Jorge Luis Borges
6. The Baroque Vico: Carlos Fuentes
7. The African Vico: Georges Ngal
8. The Post-Apocalyptic Vico: Ernst Jünger
Postscript

Appendix I: Chronology of Vico’s Principal Works
Appendix II: Literary Works Mentioning Vico

One Character in Search of an Author

Praise for Vico and Literature

About the Author

Table of Contents

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The Vico Library

An Introduction to Vico

Vico and Literature

Essay Collections

Essays in Humanity and Technology

Essays in Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy