"Lingua quo vadis?" Language and Community in Erasmus's Lingua

" 'Lingua quo vadis?' Language and Community in Erasmus's Lingua." The study examines the conceptual and metaphoric structure of Lingua, setting it both in the context of contemporary criticism and in the context of renaissance humanism. The central word plays of Erasmus's work-lingua as "tongue" and "language," language itself as both poison and cure-all-turn back against themselves, and Erasmus, the word doctor who seeks to apply logotherapy, does not seem to know whether he is attacking the disease or its cure. In short, the more he inveighs against garrulity, the more garrulous he becomes. This tension between thematic statement and verbal practice, however, does not entail a deconstructive "no exit." Rather, it points to the social dimension in the renaissance theology of the word: lingua is "that which should bind" This sociology of the word, emphasizing the potentially cohesive power of language, is given voice by way of negation in Lingua. The nightmare of tongues getting away from people ultimately gives voice to Erasmus's greatest dream: a community of letters based on philological technique and the proper "regulation" of verbal dissemination.