After Machiavelli
inquires into the relationship between “re writing”
(a dynamic process comprehending both creative newness and
intelligence of historical profundity), the “hermeneutic
attitude,” and Machiavelli’s poiesis. Specifically,
it addresses these four questions: First, to what degree can
we speak of intersection (inter-action) between these
three spheres? Second, what common ground do all three actually
share? Third, in what particular manner do the act of “re-writing”
and the “hermeneutic attitude” manifest themselves
in the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli? Last,
what bearing does this have on the reader, heir to Machiavelli’s
literary legacy?
Barbara Godorecci, in After Machiavelli, does a
close reading of a cycle of Machiavellian re-writings characterized
by three phases wherein the Secretary re-writes the works
of others (Plautus’s Casina, Terence’s
Andria, Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita,
and Dante’s De Vulgari Eloquentia), his own
texts (the story of Vitellozzo Vitelli and the events in Sinigaglia
at the court of Cesare Borgia), and is then himself re-written
(in Gramsci’s “the modern prince”).
Wilhelm Dilthey’s ideas on experience, history, and
hermeneutics provide insight into Machiavelli’s participation
in the dynamic process of re-writing as expression of his
own “hermeneutic attitude”: one which supports
and encourages the universal validity of interpretation and
(thus) clears space for others who come/take/run After
Machiavelli.
"... [a] close reading of selected texts of Machiavelli
and an investigation of the process of 'rewriting' as an
instrument for understanding the Florentine's use of the
past to inform his judgments of the present. Also, ... [an]
application of Wilhelm Dilthey's concepts of the interconnections
of past history, contemporary experience, and future potential
in which the work of one writer is revitalized by another
at another time; the historian is both the product and maker
of history.... often stimulating reading." Kenneth
R. Bartlett, Sixteenth-Century Journal
For the complete review, see Sixteenth Century Journal
26.3 (1995): 726-27.
"This fluidity [of the hermeneutic attitude] allows
readers through the centuries to return to old texts and
discover 'truths' meaningful to their own experience....
Godorecci has cogently demonstrated both its validity and
its usefulness as a critical tool." Salvatore Di Maria,
Renaissance Quarterly
For the complee review, see Renaissance Quarterly
49.2 (Summer 1996): 393-95.
"… Godorecci's book makes for stimulating reading,
because with the concepts of 're-writing' and 'hermeneutic
attitude' it succeeds in linking together theory of cultural
historical and text archaeology." —Gert Sørensen,
Orbis Litterarum
For the complete review, see Orbis Litterarum 51
(1996): 191—94.
For more reviews, see
Romanische Forschunen 106 (1994): 391-92.
Il Gonfaloniere Spring 1994: 10.
The Tuscaloosa News 6 Mar. 1994.
Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 55 (1993):
507.
Barbara Godorecci, University of Alabama, has published
on Machiavelli, contemporary poetry, and critical theory.
ISBN: 978-1-55753-246-6
1993. PSRL 3. viii, 212 pp. Paper $28.95
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