The Legacies of Vico: Philology, the Internet, the Posthuman

  • Timothy Brennan
Keywords: Internet, Youth, Philology, Imperialism, Rupture, Continuity

Abstract

Even in an era of the false populism of youth techno-cultures where intellectual dialogue seems dead on arrival, a political riposte of sorts is possible. It will find its resources in the apparently belated idea of "philology" – not understood as the old hoary science of the 19th century paleographic text, but a generalist, sociological quest for meanings as intentions. And in fact, philology has found a new popularity recently for just that reason. To speak of Vico at a conference of Italian comparatists may seem superfluous perhaps, and yet his contemporaneity in internet culture is not appreciated. Vico, not Spinoza, is the first Marxist before Marx; he anticipated anticolonial liberation theory, and he spoke directly to – while giving us weapons against – the posthumanism of internet culture. 

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How to Cite
Brennan, T. (1). The Legacies of Vico: Philology, the Internet, the Posthuman. Between, 5(10). https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/2032