RECEP-ZIONE · A Resilient Legacy: Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone di pensieri

A Resilient Legacy: Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone di pensieri

The objective of this project has been to conduct a study into the impact that the publication of Giacomo Leopardi’s Zibaldone has had in reconfiguring its author’s position in the cultural canon. In the 19th century Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) established his reputation through the publication of his poetic work – the Canti (1831, 1835, 1845) – and of a collection of prose dialogues, Operette morali (1827, 1834, 1845). The posthumous publication of his notebook, the Zibaldone (1898-1900), however, has been of outstanding importance in reconfiguring his cultural profile at both a national and an international level. The fellow's research has delved into three distinct moments of Leopardi’s reception (1898-1947; 1947-1997; 1997-today) as they have emerged from literary criticism, and she has studied the reasons for their evolution over time. She has identified that particular metaphorical patterns have been used to refer to the Zibaldone in the course of time and they have offered a valuable parameter to gauge how the relationship between the text, its audience and the profile of the author has transformed over time. In addition, she has examined and assessed a number of critical interpretations (Luporini, Solmi, Timpanaro, Prete), in terms of their relevance as specific hermeneutic endevours and the latitude of their impact in Leopardi studies. The publication in 2013 of the first complete translation of the Zibaldone into English as well as the 2014 release of a film on Leopardi's life and work, "Il giovane favoloso" by Mario Martone, have been two major reception-related events that occurred during the realization of this work and which have been taken into consideration accordingly. They are revealing instances of the new philosophical stand that Leopardi has acquired over the last fourty years (by comparison to his original poetic and philological stand) and they show the extent to which the name of Leopardi has been gaining ground in the latest decade also outside of Italy. Acknowledged by Harold Bloom as one of greatest thinkers of modernity, at a par with the likes of Nietzsche and Benjamin, Leopardi, as the work conducted on this Marie Curie project demonstrates, had a lucid and clear intution of the direction towards which advanced capitalism would move. The development of the new subjective paradigm, following the establishment of quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, has gradually but massively impacted on our consciousness of the world, of the problems related to issues of matter, what constitutes reality and how we talk about it. The intersection of historico-political factors (wars and ideological discourse), technological developments (e.g. the advent of the visual media and the internet) and, accordingly, the configuration of new modes of thinking and talking about the world, have fed into the booming of critical thinking from the 1960s onwards. Poststructuralism, deconstruction, the deleuzian anti-Freud turn are all forms of critical thinking that have, directly or indirectly, resonated in Leopardi studies and affected the interpretation of the author. An increasing interest for Leopardi’s scientific slant, which embraces a strong antiantropocentric position in tune with his sympathy for the non-human world of animals and plants, is an additional facet of his reception that has emerged from the work conducted by the fellow. Besides conference papers and a significant number of publications, this study into the impact that the publication of the Zibaldone has had on Leopardi’s reception has ensured a book contract for a monograph to be published by Mimesis international in 2016.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union