The Iconic Text and the Theory of Enunciation: Luca Signorelli at Loreto (Circa 1479-1484)

Abstract

HE SPECIAL ISSUE which New Literary History, after its exploration of medieval literature, devotes to Renaissance literature as it relates to contemporary theory presents, in its very wording, a problem at once theoretical and historical. Indeed, by attaching to the notion of literature the conventional denomination of a period in European history,1 the editor of the journal queries the epistemological notion of theory on two grounds. First on its historicity: What separates contemporary from Renaissance literature if not two or three centuries of history? What could this separation indicate if not the assignment of a truth value, or at least an operational explanatory value, to theory on account of its being contemporary? Would not such an assumption allow chronology to become a key factor in giving contemporary theory a privileged status over any other theory of the past? And if the wording itself introduces into the formulation of the leading theme an interrogative shade of meaning, then one of the questions raised will indeed be that of the operational sway which theory holds over its object as a result of its contemporaneous quality. Expressed simply, the question is: What would be the relations between theory and history, if by theory one means a systematic set of principles and methodological processes aimed at a complete, exhaustive explanation of the objects to which it is applied?2 To give such a definition of theory-the broadest possible definition-leads naturally to the second question which seems to fall within the purview of New Literary History's research project: What is the meaning and the scope of the phrase contemporary theory? What theory does it refer to? Will it fit under exact sciences, social sciences, human sciences? For instance, cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, psychoanalytical, linguistic, or semiological theories-all are dis-