Pensiero Istituente, di Roberto Esposito

This is a review of Pensiero Istituente (2020), a recent book by political philosopher and representative of Italian Thought in the Anglophone world, Roberto Esposito. It focus on the connections between current philosophical reflection and literary studies, especially in light of the latter’s search for new critical methodologies after the waning of poststructuralism. The review describes Esposito’s argument on the “instituting power of conflict” and propose that it can help us reflect on the practice of interpretation in literary studies and especially on the extent to which conflict and separation are generative of a gifting of our thoughts to the literary work. The review invites to consider the central activity of literary studies, interpretation, within an economy of the gift that rises from a conflicting, yet productive, relation to another.