Abstract

This essays provides a biographical sketch of Cesare Segre by underlining his crucial role in the fields of both philology and literary criticism. Any methodological approach proposed by Segre was based on textual research and combined textual scholarship, semiotics and literary criticism, even when it came to essays on contemporary culture. Indeed, the twentieth century and the ethical and political crisis of European culture became a constant element in Segre's critical reflections from the Nineties onwards. As a result, philology is identified by him with man's rationality, as it constitutes a specific form of communication and thus a social act.