Can we use a contemporary Western philosophical theory as a reading key for an

ancient Greek literary text? An enquiry concerning the methodology of Greek

philology as literary criticism

Luciano Adrián Sabattini

Ph.D Student
Universidad Nacional del Sur – CONICET
Argentina
luciano.sabattini@uns.edu.ar

Greek philology – Literary criticism – Literary methodology

In this paper I will try to give some directives for using a contemporary Western philosophical
theory (Lévinas’ philosophical theory on Other and Otherness, as shown in his book Totalité et
infini) as a reading key for an ancient Greek literary text (Sophocles’ Ajax). In order to make this
viable, I will suggest three methodological perspectives which will work as complementary to
each other: epistemology, hermeneutics and erotics of art. Thus, Greek philology will be able to
clarify its own methodology as literary criticism.