Defending the multiverse — or down to crisis on infinite earths. Better: for a literary Na-tional Geographic

Abstract

What is the role of literary history in face of its own object: keep the memory of the texts produced during a time gap, texts which, by definition, are endowed of multiple meanings? How to organize the report of existence of texts whose identity is unstable, since it’s being, it’s identity is a joint of meanings attributed to them by the cultural body that faces those texts? From such questions, this article performs a critical review of the theoretical procedures which are classically used for the historical approach of literary texts. Then, it is proposed the adoption of a critical perspective for the historian of literature challenged by the task of ensuring to the literary text the property that keeps it alive throughout the years: the staying power of meaning.