Vico and Literature: 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.