Said and the world: typos, mistranslations and neoplatonism

Abstract

This paper departs from the observation of a typo in a recurring quote from Hugh of Saint Victor’s Didascalicon in Edward Said’s works, a problem which upon closer inspection is symptomatic of an attitude toward religious thought that is counterproductive for Said’s arguments concerning a secular reading of texts. For decades, the words “in visible and transitory things” have been printed as “invisible and transitory things,” substantially changing the meaning of the text. Furthermore, following on Auerbach’s footsteps, Said draws from Hugh to substantiate central categories for his thought, namely exile, love, and the world, but, either willingly or unwillingly, he suppresses the original meaning of such concepts in Hugh, arriving to a characterization of them that is solely grounded on an anachronistic, 20th century perspective. By rereading Hugh in its original context, in light of the Bible and medieval Neoplatonism, we may arrive to a better understanding to how ideas that came to be of great importance to Comparative and World Literature came to occupy their place.