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- Title
Fissare l'autorità e lo stato canonico dei testi vedici.
- Authors
Ferrara, Marianna
- Abstract
According to J.Z. Smith, besides having an element of opening and systematization that distinguish a (ordered) catalog from a (unordered) list, the canon has also an element of closure that is at the heart of the hermeneute's task. Power of acting on the canon's construction allows the hermeneute to preserve his hegemonic position to declare about the contents of the canon and to modify its boundaries. In a such perspective the taking form of a canon and the attempts of its authors to preserve a position of power over it are performative acts that are related to the theme of the authority and authoriality, and that concern both the content and the authors, who representing them as part of the canon declare about its contents. If we try to apply the category ''canon'' to the product of the Vedic transmission in the terms expressed above, we gain a new point of view on the internal organization of the ''manipulators'' of the canon. Saying ''manipulation'' I intend to stress the elements of tension, debate, negotiation underlying the formation, the adjustment, the opening and re-closure of the canon. We gain also another point of view on the interpretative way through which modern interpreters of the Vedic texts have incorporated the representation of Veda as corpus and revealed truth -- ideas that are historical conditioned, oriented, and that do not actually reflect the representations of tradition occurring in the oldest levels of Vedic texts. To stress the factual negotiations around the construction of the canonic status of the Vedic texts, I will try to deconstruct the representation of Veda as monolithic corpus of texts and to examine the interests underlying the attempt of the brāhmaņical lineages at constructing, modifying, distinguishing, and legitimating a own canon of symbolic practices and procedures.
- Subjects
HINDU mythology; VEDIC language; HINDU civilization; VEDAS; VEDAS -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; HISTORICITY; RITES &; ceremonies
- Publication
Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 2012, Vol 78, Issue 1, p15
- ISSN
0393-8417
- Publication type
Article