The Autobiography of Giambattista Vico

In his essay Fictions of the Self, Michael Sprinker addresses the tension that exists between the concepts of the individual with a unique identity, and the person as a sign, an unidentifiable image. This tension specifically comes forward when one considers the author of an autobiography. Sprinker addresses how Foucault questioned the existence of an authorizing subject within a text, and how Lacan questioned the sovereignity of a subject in its "intersubjective discourse with the Other". It is in this context that Sprinker talks about the autobiography, and specifically Vico's Autobiography. As every text is a product of discourses between texts, the autobiography can be read in this way too, and Vico's Autobiography is a brilliant example, as it is a work that constantly reminds the reader of its origins in other works and discourses. Nowhere in Vico's work can one find a claim of originality or unique subjectivity (unlike in Rousseau's Confessions). Instead, Vico decided to write his autobiography in the third person, and therefore, according to Sprinker, he allowed his identity "to emerge in the act of writing that constructs the Autobiography". Indeed, in his Autobiography Vico made the endeavor to investigate the sources that led to his own writings, especially the New Science, and offers insight into his intellectual background and the genesis of his thoughts. As Sprinker notes, Vico made it very clear in his autobiography that he considered himself an autodidact, independent from other philosophers and writers, and yet the Autobiography portrays itself as a product from the influence of their works. This seems like a paradoxical statement by Vico, but taking into account that Vico regarded history as repetition, with every period being unique because of its differences from the others, yet "a recurrence of the universal pattern", we should read the Autobiography with a similar attitude. Vico's work is unique and independent because it is influenced by other works and ideas and produces differences from these influences. It is a case of what Sprinker calls a "simultaneous confirmation of similarity and discontinuity".

"The Vico road goes round and round to meet where terms begin..." writes James Joyce in Finnegans Wake, whereas well, Vico appears as Mr. John Baptister Vickar. The opening page of FW has the hundred-lettered clap of Vico's all initiating thunder, which recurs at intervals. Vico's ideas have permeated the consciousness of everyday thought, having been placed there by Karl Marx, James Joyce, Marshall McLuhan, and Joseph Campbell to name a notable few. It is an honest account of a life lived ex-centric. His insights into the history of civilization were (and still are) a far cry from Orthodox historical exegesis, and he paid a great personal price to develop and hold them. However, there is an enthusiasm and vitality that exudes from his stated ideas, and this book serves as a firm stepping stone into the thought expressed in his New Science. The introduction by the translators helps establish a context for Vico and his New Science, and establishes Vico as one of the first to write an autobiography, an art from that didn't have a formal name at that time. If you are interested in this book, you likely came here from Joyce or McLuhan to drink from their source. If not, I would like to know what other paths lead to Vico, and an email to me would be appreciated as to the commodius vicas of recirculation back to Vico. Budd Poston