The history of a text: The problem of understanding in F. Schlegel's thinking

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the problem of "understanding" within the framework of Friedrich Schlegel's early work. To achieve our purpose we take as our point of reference his interpretation of Friedrich August Wolf's philological work, where Wolf discusses the late character of Homer's works and attributes their origin to compilations carried out by third-century Alexandrian philologists. We highlight two elements in Schlegel's interpretation of Wolf's discovery: first, his agreement with the importance Wolf gave to the work of Alexandrian philologists, or Diaskeuasten; second, Schlegel's emphasis on the need to complement the task of aggregating the Diaskeuasten by disaggregating, or criticizing, the Chorizonten. On the basis of these elements, not only is it possible to accept Jure Zovko's critique of a Gadamerian interpretation of Schlegel's thought; one can also question perspectives that find in Schlegel an important forerunner of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics.