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A contribution to: Critiquing Criticism

Edited by Sophie Corser and Lucy Russell

MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 10

Modern Humanities Research Association

open

Abstract.  In light of the blurring of strict boundaries separating different literary genres, literary theory during the twentieth century considered criticism as a particular kind of rewriting, in which the meaning of the primary text is recreated through a new text, that is the text of the critic. This theoretical turning point is grounded in the idea that style can be a method of comprehension, and writing an extension of the mind, through which thoughts are shaped and not merely transcribed. If the space of writing is the very place where thought happens, rewriting becomes a strategy for understanding. The enhancement of writing as an interpretative tool is particularly relevant to the essay, conceived as a hybrid genre bridging criticism and literature. Indeed, the essay assumes stylistic patterns commonly associated with literature, such as a narrative tendency, the use of figurative and metaphoric language, and a combination of historical and fictional elements. Moreover, the cognitive value of the act of rewriting is endorsed by more recent research on human cognition. Philosophical, cognitive, and even neuroscientific studies, in fact, have underlined the role of empathy and reenactment in the processes of comprehension, elaborating the idea that cognition is an embodied process, instead of a pure intellectual faculty. This contribution aims at showing how the work of the Italian critic, Cesare Garboli, realises the possibility of conceiving the essay as a form of embodied comprehension. Indeed, the closeness of Garboli’s critical writing to the primary text, often strengthened by a biographical knowledge of the author, is a way to recreate the very experience of writing. Garboli’s essays can be interpreted as a deep form of rewriting, insofar as they literally narrate the creative processes experienced by writers. Exploring the biographical, cognitive, and even biological roots of creativity, Garboli rewrites the mental genesis of the author’s style, in order to explain his/her work.

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