The Constituent Power of the World (13th - 14th century)

This project aims at an interdisciplinary investigation of the origins of a new way of thinking about political space and community between the 13th and the 15th century as the accession, appropriation and constitution of a new public word in its rhetorical, philosophical and literary dimensions. As a matter of fact, defining the power of the word in the civic life, according to our hypothesis, is a common concern of various different disciplines (philosophy, theology, literature), new genres (i.e., civic historiography or novellas), different social groups (i.e. clerics and lay people), and genders (men and women). The fundamental aim of this proposal is the analysis of this process through the interaction of different disciplines and a variety of groups of texts. The project is structured around a few very specific debates, topics or case studies that represent at the same time midterm goals and stages of research. For instance: a) The Origins of the human community. Myths and functions; b) The Theme of Pleasure as Public Space; c) Historiography and Rhetoric. The Origins and Future of the City; d) philosophy, theology- literature and politics; e) The City of women. The project suggests that the convergence of the forms of knowledge and the conflict of traditions in the period examined (13th century-beginning of the 15th century) gives way to a variety of experiments, models, paradigms that aim at founding and appropriating a new public space, grounded on `special` linguistic exchanges. It is precisely, this suspension, this bracketing that produces conflicts and creates new orders of thought, making the modern age possible. Goals: 1) The principal aim is to prepare materials for writing a monograph about the changes and the contacts between theological, rhetorical and philosophical paradigms in political thought from the second half of the 13th to the first half of the 14th century. These are centered around the relationship between word, community and constituent power. In order to achieve this aim, it`s necessary to clarify the aims and characteristics of different groups of texts and traditions. For instance, it`s important to discuss the following research goals, as I fully explain in the proposal: a) The causative word in political theology. b) Word and language as foundation of the human community. c) The word that certifies (notary culture). d) Poeta-theologus. e) Latin and vernaculars.