De todo como en botica. Bugiardino donchisciottesco tra letteratura, filosofia e scienze sociali

Abstract

De todo como en botica. A Quixotic Information Leaflet between Literature, Philosophy and Social Sciences.
This paper investigates and compares five interpretations of Cervantes’ masterpiece developed during the 20th century in a multidisciplinary field of influences that includes Luigi Pirandello, José Ortega y Gasset, Alfred Schütz, René Girard and Michel Foucault. In order to represent this multiple reading as a whole, we have chosen an inspiring image which refers to both Plato’s and Jacques Derrida’s enquiries on the ambivalence of writing (pharmakon), which is constantly associated to a double meaning: healing and deadly drug, remedy and poison. Pharmacy (botica in old Spanish) is the dispensary where medicinal drugs are prepared or sold; but it is also the place where people look for remedies in order to heal or manage their diseases. The main interest of our analysis does not correspond to a classic conceptual mapping in the strict sense, it rather shows the pivotal role of the novel as a heuristic resource to shape a body of meaningful questions about the human world, in a crossroad of knowledge processes which take place in the 20th century between literary studies, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and history of cultures.