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Modern Italy
Journal of Modern Italian Studies
RIVISTA DI STUDI ITALIANI
Anno XX , n° 2, Dicembre 2002 ( Contributi ) pag. 82-94
BY EXCESS AND BY DEFECT.
CROCE AND THE HISTORY OF AESTHETICS
LUIGI RUSSO
Università di Palermo
"By excess or by defect", as is well-known, is a typical formula of
Croce's aesthetic historiography, which celebrates its analytical
triumph precisely in the Aesthetics of 1902. I wanted to recall this phrase only to be reformulated as "by excess and by defect" so that it can lend itself to recall, as in a flash, the dynamics that characterize that work and, at the same time, to allow the possibility of making some important theoretical deliberations that extend to later Crocean writings which we as contemporaries have to come to terms with, or, as we say, have to "confront". In fact, as we shall see, this formula, which for us is decidedly paradoxical, will allow us to fashion, in turn, a paradox, and with respect to some singular Crocean writings to judge it as non exceeding, non exorbitant, precisely by excess or by defect, but, differing from that opposition, to qualify it in a positive manner. In short, we will try to re-propose Croce's evaluation of aesthetic historiography, first, in 1902, precisely, "by excess", and later in the more mature Croce, "by defect" .
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