Notes on Method (Thinking with the nape of the neck).

This article explores the tension between objective knowledge and the individual path, addressing the evolving nature of literary studies and the role of method in the Humanities. From Hans-Georg Gadamer, who first raised the problem of method in the Humanities, to thinkers of the human condition (represented here by José Ortega y Gasset and Marίa Zambrano), the article shows that the act of reading – presumably the central activity in literary studies– is fatally entangled with the pursuit of what I call an unsheltered human condition. Following up on the work of Toril Moi, my reflection proposes that the act of reading, central to literary studies, is inherently linked to the search for an impersonal primary scene that bequeaths a human figure turned towards its opaque condition. The consequences of this entanglement play out, among other things, in the strange figure of the critic. The reflection focuses on the shift from methodological concerns to the emancipation of the critic and considers the extended concepts of text and writing.