Martina Piperno | Università degli Studi "La Sapienza" di Roma (original) (raw)
Videos by Martina Piperno
Video prepared on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021; collaboration... more Video prepared on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021; collaboration between KU Leuven Faculty of Arts and Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. Conversation with director Valentino Nizzo, archaeologist Antonietta Simonelli through the museum's rooms, flipping through Giorgio Bassani's Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini.
Text: Martina Piperno, Antonietta Simonelli
Screening: Anna Tanzarella
Production: Mauro Benedetti
31 views
Prizes by Martina Piperno
The prize is one of eighteen awards that will be presented on 11 January 2020, during the associa... more The prize is one of eighteen awards that will be presented on 11 January 2020, during the association’s annual convention, to be held in Seattle. The members of the selection committee were Paola Bonifazio (Univ. of Texas, Austin); Sabrina Ferri (Univ. of Notre Dame); and Armando Maggi (Univ. of Chicago), chair.
The selection committee’s citation for Piperno’s book reads:
Martina Piperno’s extremely well-researched volume leads readers to a significantly new and exciting approach to a poorly appreciated period of Italian modern cultural history: Bourbon Restoration Italy. Piperno convincingly shows how in postrevolutionary Italy Vico’s New Science became “a powerfully diffractive object” that helped Italian intellectuals process the deeply disturbing cultural shock that had undermined their most basic ideals. Piperno brings to the fore significant points of connection between Vico’s philosophical thought and Giacomo Leopardi’s poetics and especially his immense Zibaldone. Rebuilding Post-revolutionary Italy: Leopardi and Vico’s New Science is a truly engaging and innovative work that will become an indispensable point of reference for future scholars of Italian cultural history.
Call for papers by Martina Piperno
Call for papers for the conference "L'antichità 'gentile'. La ricezione dell'antico nella cultura... more Call for papers for the conference "L'antichità 'gentile'. La ricezione dell'antico nella cultura dell'ebraismo italiano moderno", Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle, March 18-19, 2022 (Italian, English, French version)
When visiting the Etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri, near Rome, in the spring of 1957, the protago... more When visiting the Etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri, near Rome, in the spring of 1957, the protagonist of "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" by Jewish writer Giorgio Bassani (Shoah survivor, 1916-2000) is suddenly inspired to tell the story of his friends, the Finzi-Contini family, who were deported and assassinated at Auschwitz. The painful memory of the Shoah, and the impulse to tell about it, are inspired by the space of the necropolis as a place dedicated to loss, mourning, and to the memory of a silenced community. Arguably, the fact that this is an Etruscan necropolis adds further shades of meaning to the archaeological site: it is in fact a place which remembers the extinction of a minority, apparently "wiped away" by the stronger (colonial) power of Rome. The fact that modern archaeology has rejected this violent version of the end of the Etruscans does not seem to impact on the symbolic and mythological value of the necropolis. This powerful page by Bassani raises questions about the connection between the faculty of memory, archaeology, material culture, and the sphere of (literary) representation. How do archaeological sites function on the literary page and how do their meanings change over time? How is the "evocative" and "suggestive" nature of an archaeological site used in literary contexts (i. e. Gabriele d'Annunzio portrayal of Mykenes in La città morta, inspired by Nietzsche and Schliemann)? Is literature capable of highlighting the problematic and ever-changing meanings of archaeological spaces, and/or to change them (i. e. D. H. Lawrence uncovering the hidden meanings of Tarquinia in Etruscan places)? How does the historical, material information available on significant spaces interact with the symbolic nature attributed to them by fiction? How does this change over time, in connection with meaningful discoveries about ancient times, and with political and social change? Whose perspectives are evoked by fiction on places of ruins, destruction, colonization (i. e. in the problematic case of the "archaeological dream" of pro-imperialist writings by Louis Bertrand)? How can literary representations contribute to building a "memory map" at national, regional, and local level?
Monograph by Martina Piperno
http://www.carocci.it/index.php?option=com\_carocci&Itemid=72&task=schedalibro&isbn=9788843098859 ... more http://www.carocci.it/index.php?option=com_carocci&Itemid=72&task=schedalibro&isbn=9788843098859
Gli Etruschi e gli altri popoli dell’Italia antica hanno lasciato tracce più misteriose e più inquietanti dei Romani conquistatori. Mentre la cosiddetta “classicità” greca e romana ci parla attraverso numerose fonti, gli Etruschi e gli Italici risultano di sconcertante laconicità, in quanto le fonti della loro storia sono per lo più indirette e scritte in altre lingue. Questa antichità remota, «più misteriosa e crudele» (come la descrive Carlo Levi), ha stimolato per secoli l’immaginazione degli scrittori. Nella letteratura italiana del Novecento l’immagine dell’Italia antica e gli spazi della sua memoria (necropoli, siti archeologici, antiche città, rovine) diventano spesso strumento di articolazione dei temi della perdita, del lutto, della sparizione, dell’estinzione, ma anche di rinascita e persistenza. Studiando quattro casi di ricezione della storia dell’Italia antica nella letteratura italiana dalla fine dell’Ottocento agli anni Settanta del Novecento, il volume fornisce un esempio della profondità teorica e dell’ampiezza del raggio di interesse di quest’area ancora poco esplorata della sopravvivenza dell’antico, aprendo così nuove prospettive di ricerca.
The rediscovery of the thought of Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) – especially his New science – is... more The rediscovery of the thought of Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) – especially his New science – is a post-Revolutionary phenomenon. Stressing the elements that keep society together by promoting a sense of belonging, Vico’s philosophy helped shape a new Italian identity and intellectual class. Poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) responded perceptively to the spreading and manipulation of Vico’s ideas, but to what extent can he be considered Vico’s heir?
Through examining the reasons behind the success of the New science in early nineteenth-century Italy, Martina Piperno uncovers the cultural trends, debates, and obsessions fostered by Vico’s work. She reconstructs the penetration of Vico-related discourses in circles and environments frequented by Leopardi, and establishes and analyses a latent Vico-Leopardi relationship. Her highly original reading sees Leopardi reacting to the tensions of his time, receiving Vico’s message indirectly without a need to draw directly from the source. By exploring the oblique influence of Vico’s thought on Leopardi, Martina Piperno highlights the unique character of Italian modernity and its tendency to renegotiate tradition and innovation, past and future. http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/book/rebuilding-post-revolutionary-italy
Papers by Martina Piperno
Sebastiano Vassalli's historical novel Un infinito numero (1999) is based on the myth of the lost... more Sebastiano Vassalli's historical novel Un infinito numero (1999) is based on the myth of the lost wisdom and the secrets of the remote Etruscan civilization and shows effectively how literary imagination can attempt to 'fill the gaps' of historical science. The novel effectively portrays a problematic relationship with a hidden area of antiquity and the creative strategies that the novelist can put in place to imaginatively retrieve it. This article analyzes Vassalli's unique perspective on the ancient and puts it in dialogue with other examples from Vassalli's oeuvre (i. e. Terre selvagge, 2014), and with comparable case studies from Italian and British literature.
This essay analyses literary articles published in the fortnightly «La difesa della razza» (1938-... more This essay analyses literary articles published in the fortnightly «La difesa della
razza» (1938-1940), focusing on the use of quotations from Giacomo Leopardi’s
Zibaldone. The latter work was emphasised and over a period of several
months discussed in a regular column. An analysis of the modes of extrapolation,
selection and comment reveals the manipulation of Leopardi on the part
of the editors of the magazine, as well as the strategies of textual domestication
within the main narrative threads of the periodical.
Italian Studies, 2022
In the novel Forse che sì forse che no (1910), Gabriele D’Annunzio provides an interesting contam... more In the novel Forse che sì forse che no (1910), Gabriele D’Annunzio provides an interesting contamination of suggestions from Dante’sInferno with ancient Etruscan art and, more generally, with the mystifying landscape of the Tuscan city of Volterra. In doing so, he productively combines his typical imaginative and synaesthetic style with scholarly and cultural trends of the time suggesting that a secret ‘blood memory’ might tie together Tuscan art of all times – from theEtruscans to Dante to the modern era. This essay explores D’Annunzio’s rendering of the ‘Etruscan Dante’ by setting it in the wider context of the reception of Dante and of ancient Italian art with a particular focus on the synaesthetic contaminations between suggestions from the text and the visual and tactual features of ancient Etruscan art.
I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, 2017
The Italianist, 2017
ABSTRACT The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on th... more ABSTRACT The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on the key concepts of contradiction and retraction through an examination of the works which were later brought together in his Canti (definitive edition 1845). Self-contradiction, apostasy, and the continuous redefinition of the figure of the author – also through irony and desacralization – are shown to characterize Leopardi, both as a poet and as a philosopher. The essay argues that these elements play an important in Leopardi's work, which acknowledges the need for openness, dilemma, and doubt as features of modern literature.
Costellazioni di lemmi : lo Zibaldone come luogo di definizione del lessico filosofico leopardiano, 2013
"Through the analysis of the words “barbarie, “ignoranza” and “perfezione” and of the ambigu... more "Through the analysis of the words “barbarie, “ignoranza” and “perfezione” and of the ambiguous sense(s) they have in the diary, the essay aims at outlining some characteristics of the language of the Zibaldone - a rich and complex language but not always explicit as that of other Leopardi’s works. Some peculiarities of this language enlighten the provocative originality of the poet’s thought. This way I introduce an image of the Zibaldone as the laboratory where Leopardi’s vocabulary is selected and powered. I also suggest that these procedures are more similar to the concentration of the poetic word, rather than to the analytic decomposition that is typical of philosophy. Attraverso l’analisi dei lemmi “barbarie”, “ignoranza” e “perfezione”, e delle ambiguità di senso che essi mostrano nel diario, il saggio si propone di mostrare alcune caratteristiche della lingua zibaldoniana, ricca e complessa, ma non sempre esplicita come quella delle altre opere. Specifiche peculiarità di tale lingua si rivelano come spie della provocatoria novità del pensiero di Leopardi.Si presenta così un’interpretazione dello Zibaldone come luogo della selezione e del potenziamento del lessico leopardiano; procedimenti che risultano più simili alla concentrazione del dettato poetico che alla scomposizione analitica tipica delle materie filosofiche. "
Viaggiatori, 2019
Giambattista Vico's New Science (1744) was particularly successful in Europe in the Bourbon R... more Giambattista Vico's New Science (1744) was particularly successful in Europe in the Bourbon Restoration years, starting with the first 19th century edition (1801). Translations into French, English and German were key in this posthumous success. This essay, inspired by the author's previous work on Vico's reception in Italy, sums up what we know about the translations of Vico in English, German and French in the Bourbon Restoration era, and points to possible new research paths centered on Vico's translations, their language, and the linguistic choices they feature, as key means of the penetration of the New Science in European culture and its success.
Sulle metamorfosi che l’uso letterario del mito subisce fra il 1816 e il 1827, nel corso di quell... more Sulle metamorfosi che l’uso letterario del mito subisce fra il 1816 e il 1827, nel corso di quella che siamo usi chiamare la polemica classico-romantica, la critica ha tradizionalmente visto il transito da un impiego meccanico, stereotipato e vuoto di temi e immagini mitologiche (lasciato in eredità da una tradizione che, come ha notato Amedeo Quondam, si riconosce come tale solo al suo tramonto) a una presenza soffusa, discreta ed evocativa di materiali mitici. Non è un caso, del resto, che ..
Although the Hundred Days are not normally regarded as an episode of significance to Italian hist... more Although the Hundred Days are not normally regarded as an episode of significance to Italian history, by looking at literary reactions (poems, orations, novels) to the event and to the literary construction of Murat’s figure, and by considering unpublished material, this chapter draws a more faithful picture of the conflicting cultural responses of 1815 Italy. These responses were characterized by indecisiveness, weariness, confusion about legitimacy and consent, and a sense of loss: all signs of a post-traumatic crisis. This essay also challenges an historiographical interpretation of the events of 1815, which identifies them as the first phase of the Italian Risorgimento.
Modern Languages Open, 2018
This special issue of Modern Languages Open is about how contemporary Britain perceives and imagi... more This special issue of Modern Languages Open is about how contemporary Britain perceives and imagines Italy, and how it mirrors itself in Italy's image. It aims at interrogating the current clichés about Italy, showing how imagery about the country is multi-faceted and prismatic, highlighting areas of dialogue as well as tendencies towards stereotyping. It problematizes the images of Italy as it is seen in various layers of British society-from the media, to film, to politics-showing how the construction of the southern European country still corresponds to a horizon of expectations more than to reality. Initially inspired by the one-day conference Italy Made in England, held at the University of Warwick on 22nd February 2014 and funded by the Warwick Humanities Research Centre, this special issue emerges from an ongoing dialogue among a group of scholars whose work focuses on the interaction between Italian and British culture.
voiceXchange, 2011
... Pietro Rinaldi (18441924) Giulia Ferrucci ... Domenico Mancini was a falsettist and famous p... more ... Pietro Rinaldi (18441924) Giulia Ferrucci ... Domenico Mancini was a falsettist and famous pupil of Moreschi's who left a number of manuscript writings now in the Archivio privato Bartolucci (Salvo De Fattor, La cappella musicale pontificia nel Novecento, 218 and 283). ...
Questo libro propone un nuovo approccio a Giacomo Leopardi. Sul presupposto che il suo immenso la... more Questo libro propone un nuovo approccio a Giacomo Leopardi. Sul presupposto che il suo immenso lavoro letterario, filosofico e scientifico rappresenti un corpus coerente di pensiero, se ne tenta un’esplorazione sistematica a partire dal lessico. Il libro (prima tappa di uno studio che si estendera ad altri campi semantici e ad altri lemmi) offre ai lettori ventidue parole-chiave dell’universo leopardiano, aventi a che fare con le operazioni della conoscenza e il funzionamento del linguaggio. Attraverso l’analisi di lemmi come esperienza, memoria, lingua, ricordanza e altri, familiari agli studiosi, vengono ricostruiti i complessi fili di pensiero che percorrono la riflessione leopardiana, snodando attraverso altrettanti ‘problemi’, concettuali e linguistici, il suo confronto con la modernita. Il database della ricerca e formato dall’intera opera del Leopardi, indagata per mezzo delle piu avanzate risorse elettroniche, ma senza sacrificare la dimensione artigianale, con costante attenzione ai contesti d’uso, alle sfumature e alle oscillazioni semantiche dei termini indagati. Lessico leopardiano si inserisce nella stagione di studi aperta sia dalla disponibilita di metodologie automatizzate, sia dalla consapevolezza della natura ipertestuale dell’opera del Leopardi: dove ogni elemento e la risultante di un gioco di relazioni da una parte con la cultura, letteraria, filosofica e scientifica europea, fra Illuminismo e Romantik, dall’altra col meccanismo labirintico, ma mai casuale, della sua scrittura e del suo organizzarsi in testo. A questo Lessico hanno collaborato giovani studiosi che sono fra le migliori leve dei recenti studi leopardiani.
Leopardi, Vico, Cattaneo: philosophy of belonging – This essay discusses a possible lineage of th... more Leopardi, Vico, Cattaneo: philosophy of belonging – This essay discusses a possible lineage of thought within the so-called “Italian thought”, which connects Giambattista Vico, and the Neapolitan Enlightenment in general, with Leopardi and Cattaneo. This genealogy of thinkers is particularly interested in the dynamics of belonging in societies.
The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on the key concept... more The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on the key concepts of contradiction and retraction through an examination of the works which were later brought together in his Canti (definitive edition 1845). Self-contradiction, apostasy, and the continuous redefinition of the figure of the author – also through irony and desacralization – are shown to characterize Leopardi, both as a poet and as a philosopher. The essay argues that these elements play an important in Leopardi's work, which acknowledges the need for openness, dilemma, and doubt as features of modern literature.
Video prepared on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021; collaboration... more Video prepared on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021; collaboration between KU Leuven Faculty of Arts and Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. Conversation with director Valentino Nizzo, archaeologist Antonietta Simonelli through the museum's rooms, flipping through Giorgio Bassani's Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini.
Text: Martina Piperno, Antonietta Simonelli
Screening: Anna Tanzarella
Production: Mauro Benedetti
31 views
The prize is one of eighteen awards that will be presented on 11 January 2020, during the associa... more The prize is one of eighteen awards that will be presented on 11 January 2020, during the association’s annual convention, to be held in Seattle. The members of the selection committee were Paola Bonifazio (Univ. of Texas, Austin); Sabrina Ferri (Univ. of Notre Dame); and Armando Maggi (Univ. of Chicago), chair.
The selection committee’s citation for Piperno’s book reads:
Martina Piperno’s extremely well-researched volume leads readers to a significantly new and exciting approach to a poorly appreciated period of Italian modern cultural history: Bourbon Restoration Italy. Piperno convincingly shows how in postrevolutionary Italy Vico’s New Science became “a powerfully diffractive object” that helped Italian intellectuals process the deeply disturbing cultural shock that had undermined their most basic ideals. Piperno brings to the fore significant points of connection between Vico’s philosophical thought and Giacomo Leopardi’s poetics and especially his immense Zibaldone. Rebuilding Post-revolutionary Italy: Leopardi and Vico’s New Science is a truly engaging and innovative work that will become an indispensable point of reference for future scholars of Italian cultural history.
Call for papers for the conference "L'antichità 'gentile'. La ricezione dell'antico nella cultura... more Call for papers for the conference "L'antichità 'gentile'. La ricezione dell'antico nella cultura dell'ebraismo italiano moderno", Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle, March 18-19, 2022 (Italian, English, French version)
When visiting the Etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri, near Rome, in the spring of 1957, the protago... more When visiting the Etruscan necropolis of Cerveteri, near Rome, in the spring of 1957, the protagonist of "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" by Jewish writer Giorgio Bassani (Shoah survivor, 1916-2000) is suddenly inspired to tell the story of his friends, the Finzi-Contini family, who were deported and assassinated at Auschwitz. The painful memory of the Shoah, and the impulse to tell about it, are inspired by the space of the necropolis as a place dedicated to loss, mourning, and to the memory of a silenced community. Arguably, the fact that this is an Etruscan necropolis adds further shades of meaning to the archaeological site: it is in fact a place which remembers the extinction of a minority, apparently "wiped away" by the stronger (colonial) power of Rome. The fact that modern archaeology has rejected this violent version of the end of the Etruscans does not seem to impact on the symbolic and mythological value of the necropolis. This powerful page by Bassani raises questions about the connection between the faculty of memory, archaeology, material culture, and the sphere of (literary) representation. How do archaeological sites function on the literary page and how do their meanings change over time? How is the "evocative" and "suggestive" nature of an archaeological site used in literary contexts (i. e. Gabriele d'Annunzio portrayal of Mykenes in La città morta, inspired by Nietzsche and Schliemann)? Is literature capable of highlighting the problematic and ever-changing meanings of archaeological spaces, and/or to change them (i. e. D. H. Lawrence uncovering the hidden meanings of Tarquinia in Etruscan places)? How does the historical, material information available on significant spaces interact with the symbolic nature attributed to them by fiction? How does this change over time, in connection with meaningful discoveries about ancient times, and with political and social change? Whose perspectives are evoked by fiction on places of ruins, destruction, colonization (i. e. in the problematic case of the "archaeological dream" of pro-imperialist writings by Louis Bertrand)? How can literary representations contribute to building a "memory map" at national, regional, and local level?
http://www.carocci.it/index.php?option=com\_carocci&Itemid=72&task=schedalibro&isbn=9788843098859 ... more http://www.carocci.it/index.php?option=com_carocci&Itemid=72&task=schedalibro&isbn=9788843098859
Gli Etruschi e gli altri popoli dell’Italia antica hanno lasciato tracce più misteriose e più inquietanti dei Romani conquistatori. Mentre la cosiddetta “classicità” greca e romana ci parla attraverso numerose fonti, gli Etruschi e gli Italici risultano di sconcertante laconicità, in quanto le fonti della loro storia sono per lo più indirette e scritte in altre lingue. Questa antichità remota, «più misteriosa e crudele» (come la descrive Carlo Levi), ha stimolato per secoli l’immaginazione degli scrittori. Nella letteratura italiana del Novecento l’immagine dell’Italia antica e gli spazi della sua memoria (necropoli, siti archeologici, antiche città, rovine) diventano spesso strumento di articolazione dei temi della perdita, del lutto, della sparizione, dell’estinzione, ma anche di rinascita e persistenza. Studiando quattro casi di ricezione della storia dell’Italia antica nella letteratura italiana dalla fine dell’Ottocento agli anni Settanta del Novecento, il volume fornisce un esempio della profondità teorica e dell’ampiezza del raggio di interesse di quest’area ancora poco esplorata della sopravvivenza dell’antico, aprendo così nuove prospettive di ricerca.
The rediscovery of the thought of Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) – especially his New science – is... more The rediscovery of the thought of Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) – especially his New science – is a post-Revolutionary phenomenon. Stressing the elements that keep society together by promoting a sense of belonging, Vico’s philosophy helped shape a new Italian identity and intellectual class. Poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) responded perceptively to the spreading and manipulation of Vico’s ideas, but to what extent can he be considered Vico’s heir?
Through examining the reasons behind the success of the New science in early nineteenth-century Italy, Martina Piperno uncovers the cultural trends, debates, and obsessions fostered by Vico’s work. She reconstructs the penetration of Vico-related discourses in circles and environments frequented by Leopardi, and establishes and analyses a latent Vico-Leopardi relationship. Her highly original reading sees Leopardi reacting to the tensions of his time, receiving Vico’s message indirectly without a need to draw directly from the source. By exploring the oblique influence of Vico’s thought on Leopardi, Martina Piperno highlights the unique character of Italian modernity and its tendency to renegotiate tradition and innovation, past and future. http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/book/rebuilding-post-revolutionary-italy
Sebastiano Vassalli's historical novel Un infinito numero (1999) is based on the myth of the lost... more Sebastiano Vassalli's historical novel Un infinito numero (1999) is based on the myth of the lost wisdom and the secrets of the remote Etruscan civilization and shows effectively how literary imagination can attempt to 'fill the gaps' of historical science. The novel effectively portrays a problematic relationship with a hidden area of antiquity and the creative strategies that the novelist can put in place to imaginatively retrieve it. This article analyzes Vassalli's unique perspective on the ancient and puts it in dialogue with other examples from Vassalli's oeuvre (i. e. Terre selvagge, 2014), and with comparable case studies from Italian and British literature.
This essay analyses literary articles published in the fortnightly «La difesa della razza» (1938-... more This essay analyses literary articles published in the fortnightly «La difesa della
razza» (1938-1940), focusing on the use of quotations from Giacomo Leopardi’s
Zibaldone. The latter work was emphasised and over a period of several
months discussed in a regular column. An analysis of the modes of extrapolation,
selection and comment reveals the manipulation of Leopardi on the part
of the editors of the magazine, as well as the strategies of textual domestication
within the main narrative threads of the periodical.
Italian Studies, 2022
In the novel Forse che sì forse che no (1910), Gabriele D’Annunzio provides an interesting contam... more In the novel Forse che sì forse che no (1910), Gabriele D’Annunzio provides an interesting contamination of suggestions from Dante’sInferno with ancient Etruscan art and, more generally, with the mystifying landscape of the Tuscan city of Volterra. In doing so, he productively combines his typical imaginative and synaesthetic style with scholarly and cultural trends of the time suggesting that a secret ‘blood memory’ might tie together Tuscan art of all times – from theEtruscans to Dante to the modern era. This essay explores D’Annunzio’s rendering of the ‘Etruscan Dante’ by setting it in the wider context of the reception of Dante and of ancient Italian art with a particular focus on the synaesthetic contaminations between suggestions from the text and the visual and tactual features of ancient Etruscan art.
I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, 2017
The Italianist, 2017
ABSTRACT The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on th... more ABSTRACT The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on the key concepts of contradiction and retraction through an examination of the works which were later brought together in his Canti (definitive edition 1845). Self-contradiction, apostasy, and the continuous redefinition of the figure of the author – also through irony and desacralization – are shown to characterize Leopardi, both as a poet and as a philosopher. The essay argues that these elements play an important in Leopardi's work, which acknowledges the need for openness, dilemma, and doubt as features of modern literature.
Costellazioni di lemmi : lo Zibaldone come luogo di definizione del lessico filosofico leopardiano, 2013
"Through the analysis of the words “barbarie, “ignoranza” and “perfezione” and of the ambigu... more "Through the analysis of the words “barbarie, “ignoranza” and “perfezione” and of the ambiguous sense(s) they have in the diary, the essay aims at outlining some characteristics of the language of the Zibaldone - a rich and complex language but not always explicit as that of other Leopardi’s works. Some peculiarities of this language enlighten the provocative originality of the poet’s thought. This way I introduce an image of the Zibaldone as the laboratory where Leopardi’s vocabulary is selected and powered. I also suggest that these procedures are more similar to the concentration of the poetic word, rather than to the analytic decomposition that is typical of philosophy. Attraverso l’analisi dei lemmi “barbarie”, “ignoranza” e “perfezione”, e delle ambiguità di senso che essi mostrano nel diario, il saggio si propone di mostrare alcune caratteristiche della lingua zibaldoniana, ricca e complessa, ma non sempre esplicita come quella delle altre opere. Specifiche peculiarità di tale lingua si rivelano come spie della provocatoria novità del pensiero di Leopardi.Si presenta così un’interpretazione dello Zibaldone come luogo della selezione e del potenziamento del lessico leopardiano; procedimenti che risultano più simili alla concentrazione del dettato poetico che alla scomposizione analitica tipica delle materie filosofiche. "
Viaggiatori, 2019
Giambattista Vico's New Science (1744) was particularly successful in Europe in the Bourbon R... more Giambattista Vico's New Science (1744) was particularly successful in Europe in the Bourbon Restoration years, starting with the first 19th century edition (1801). Translations into French, English and German were key in this posthumous success. This essay, inspired by the author's previous work on Vico's reception in Italy, sums up what we know about the translations of Vico in English, German and French in the Bourbon Restoration era, and points to possible new research paths centered on Vico's translations, their language, and the linguistic choices they feature, as key means of the penetration of the New Science in European culture and its success.
Sulle metamorfosi che l’uso letterario del mito subisce fra il 1816 e il 1827, nel corso di quell... more Sulle metamorfosi che l’uso letterario del mito subisce fra il 1816 e il 1827, nel corso di quella che siamo usi chiamare la polemica classico-romantica, la critica ha tradizionalmente visto il transito da un impiego meccanico, stereotipato e vuoto di temi e immagini mitologiche (lasciato in eredità da una tradizione che, come ha notato Amedeo Quondam, si riconosce come tale solo al suo tramonto) a una presenza soffusa, discreta ed evocativa di materiali mitici. Non è un caso, del resto, che ..
Although the Hundred Days are not normally regarded as an episode of significance to Italian hist... more Although the Hundred Days are not normally regarded as an episode of significance to Italian history, by looking at literary reactions (poems, orations, novels) to the event and to the literary construction of Murat’s figure, and by considering unpublished material, this chapter draws a more faithful picture of the conflicting cultural responses of 1815 Italy. These responses were characterized by indecisiveness, weariness, confusion about legitimacy and consent, and a sense of loss: all signs of a post-traumatic crisis. This essay also challenges an historiographical interpretation of the events of 1815, which identifies them as the first phase of the Italian Risorgimento.
Modern Languages Open, 2018
This special issue of Modern Languages Open is about how contemporary Britain perceives and imagi... more This special issue of Modern Languages Open is about how contemporary Britain perceives and imagines Italy, and how it mirrors itself in Italy's image. It aims at interrogating the current clichés about Italy, showing how imagery about the country is multi-faceted and prismatic, highlighting areas of dialogue as well as tendencies towards stereotyping. It problematizes the images of Italy as it is seen in various layers of British society-from the media, to film, to politics-showing how the construction of the southern European country still corresponds to a horizon of expectations more than to reality. Initially inspired by the one-day conference Italy Made in England, held at the University of Warwick on 22nd February 2014 and funded by the Warwick Humanities Research Centre, this special issue emerges from an ongoing dialogue among a group of scholars whose work focuses on the interaction between Italian and British culture.
voiceXchange, 2011
... Pietro Rinaldi (18441924) Giulia Ferrucci ... Domenico Mancini was a falsettist and famous p... more ... Pietro Rinaldi (18441924) Giulia Ferrucci ... Domenico Mancini was a falsettist and famous pupil of Moreschi's who left a number of manuscript writings now in the Archivio privato Bartolucci (Salvo De Fattor, La cappella musicale pontificia nel Novecento, 218 and 283). ...
Questo libro propone un nuovo approccio a Giacomo Leopardi. Sul presupposto che il suo immenso la... more Questo libro propone un nuovo approccio a Giacomo Leopardi. Sul presupposto che il suo immenso lavoro letterario, filosofico e scientifico rappresenti un corpus coerente di pensiero, se ne tenta un’esplorazione sistematica a partire dal lessico. Il libro (prima tappa di uno studio che si estendera ad altri campi semantici e ad altri lemmi) offre ai lettori ventidue parole-chiave dell’universo leopardiano, aventi a che fare con le operazioni della conoscenza e il funzionamento del linguaggio. Attraverso l’analisi di lemmi come esperienza, memoria, lingua, ricordanza e altri, familiari agli studiosi, vengono ricostruiti i complessi fili di pensiero che percorrono la riflessione leopardiana, snodando attraverso altrettanti ‘problemi’, concettuali e linguistici, il suo confronto con la modernita. Il database della ricerca e formato dall’intera opera del Leopardi, indagata per mezzo delle piu avanzate risorse elettroniche, ma senza sacrificare la dimensione artigianale, con costante attenzione ai contesti d’uso, alle sfumature e alle oscillazioni semantiche dei termini indagati. Lessico leopardiano si inserisce nella stagione di studi aperta sia dalla disponibilita di metodologie automatizzate, sia dalla consapevolezza della natura ipertestuale dell’opera del Leopardi: dove ogni elemento e la risultante di un gioco di relazioni da una parte con la cultura, letteraria, filosofica e scientifica europea, fra Illuminismo e Romantik, dall’altra col meccanismo labirintico, ma mai casuale, della sua scrittura e del suo organizzarsi in testo. A questo Lessico hanno collaborato giovani studiosi che sono fra le migliori leve dei recenti studi leopardiani.
Leopardi, Vico, Cattaneo: philosophy of belonging – This essay discusses a possible lineage of th... more Leopardi, Vico, Cattaneo: philosophy of belonging – This essay discusses a possible lineage of thought within the so-called “Italian thought”, which connects Giambattista Vico, and the Neapolitan Enlightenment in general, with Leopardi and Cattaneo. This genealogy of thinkers is particularly interested in the dynamics of belonging in societies.
The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on the key concept... more The essay explores the construction of Leopardi's authorial persona, focussing on the key concepts of contradiction and retraction through an examination of the works which were later brought together in his Canti (definitive edition 1845). Self-contradiction, apostasy, and the continuous redefinition of the figure of the author – also through irony and desacralization – are shown to characterize Leopardi, both as a poet and as a philosopher. The essay argues that these elements play an important in Leopardi's work, which acknowledges the need for openness, dilemma, and doubt as features of modern literature.
Reprinted in 1801, Vico's New Science (originally published 1744) had a profound impact on Bourbo... more Reprinted in 1801, Vico's New Science (originally published 1744) had a profound impact on Bourbon Restoration culture, particularly in Italy and France, where it touched post-revolutionary readers profoundly. The reasons for Vico's revival in the early nineteenth century relate closely to the trauma of the political and social changes of that era. Vico's readership seems to have had significant peaks during periods of rapid social transformation: nineteenth-century readers reread the New Science in an attempt to find the reasons for revolutionary failure, and to relate the terror, the sense of displacement, failure and trauma to recognizable laws, promising that, after a crisis, a period of renaissance must necessarily follow. This article analyses the hermeneutic practices of some post-revolutionary readers of Vico (Carlo Cattaneo, Vincenzo Cuoco, Giuseppe Ferrari, Ugo Foscolo, Francesco Lomonaco) and suggests a comparison with the practices of readers during the Second World War (Eric Auerbach, Carlo Levi, Mario Fubini). By doing so, I propose an interpretation of Vico's New Science as a ‘posthumous’ book, acquiring special shades of significance when its readers experience the feeling that nothing will ever be like before, and meditate upon it in isolation, in fear, in exile, upon return from the front, and in prison.
Tutti i diritti riservati. È vietata la riproduzione di testi e illustrazioni senza il permesso s... more Tutti i diritti riservati. È vietata la riproduzione di testi e illustrazioni senza il permesso scritto dell'Editore. L'Ellisse : studi storici di letteratura italiana. -1(2006)-. -Roma : «L'ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER, 2006 .-v. ; 24 cm Annuale ISSN 1826-0187 CDD 21. 850.5 1. Letteratura italiana -Periodici I VERSI Luigi Blasucci, Appunti sui Versi del '26 e in particolare sugli "idilli" …………………… » 17 Marco Antonio Bazzocchi, Abbozzi per la storia di un'anima ……………………… » 27 IDILLI L'Infinito. Idillio I (Luca Maccioni) ……………………………………………… » 37 La sera del giorno festivo. Idillio II (Simone Moro) ………………………………… » 57 La ricordanza. Idillio III (Paola Italia) …………………………………………… » 67 Il sogno. Idillio IV (Roberto Rea) ………………………………………………… » 81 Lo spavento notturno. Idillio V (Franco D'Intino) ………………………………… » 97 La vita solitaria. Idillio VI (Johnny L. Bertolio) …………………………………… » 119 ELEGIE Elegia I (Margherita Centenari) …………………………………………………… » 131 Elegia II (Rossano Pestarino) …………………………………………………… » 141 Premessa. Ragioni di un libro di Paola Italia …………………………………………………………… pag. … 7 Giacomo Leopardi Il libro dei Versi del 1826: «poesie originali» a cura di Paola Italia SONETTI IN PERSONA DI SER PECORA FIORENTINO BECCAIO (Silvia Datteroni) ……… » 163 EPISTOLA AL CONTE CARLO PEPOLI (Martina Piperno) …………………………… » 189 GUERRA DEI TOPI E DELLE RANE (Andrea Penso) …………………………………… » 201 VOLGARIZZAMENTO DELLA SATIRA DI SIMONIDE SOPRA LE DONNE (Valerio Camarotto) … » 217 APPENDICE L'INNO A NETTUNO e LA TORTA (a cura di Margherita Centenari) ……………… » 227 Abbreviazioni dei testi di Giacomo Leopardi ……………………………………… » 235
This essay attempts at clarifying the relationship between some works by Carlo Levi (Paura del... more This essay attempts at clarifying the relationship
between some works by Carlo Levi (Paura della li-
bertà, L’Orologio), and Vico’s New Science. Existing
scholarship has highlighted some lines of continui-
ty between these texts, while I argue that,
instead, the relationship between Levi and Vico may
have been rather a conflictual one.
Some thoughts about a new research project about Leopardi
When Giorgio Bassani first approached poetry and started to write verses by imitating a fellow st... more When Giorgio Bassani first approached poetry and started to write verses by imitating a fellow student in the first years of high school (ginnasio), he was somehow resurrecting an art that belonged to the past. He did not believe that writing poetry was possible in the modern day. Poets are characters who belong to history, and literary handbooks: 'nella mia dabbenaggine non supponevo che se ne facessero più di versi: le poesie appartenevano al passato, i poeti erano già tutti accaduti' [I was so gullible I believed that writing verse was old-fashioned: poems belonged to the past, all poets were long gone]. 1 Poetry itself, therefore, was no longer in fashion in modernity, which forces a dialogue with dead, celebrated models, and, more generally, with the past. During his lifetime, writing and mourning became fatally intertwined. It is widely known that Bassani's works, particularly his world-famous novels, are dominated by a need to remember the dead-specifically, the members of the Jewish community of his native town, Ferrara, and his own acquaintances, who were decimated by the deportations to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. This desire is rooted in Bassani's ethos of remembrance and recollection, perhaps enhanced by survivor guilt. This was made clear directly by him, echoing the duty of the survivor that had already been evoked by Primo Levi a few years previously: Il pericolo che incombe sui giovani di oggi è che si dimentichino di ciò che è accaduto, dei luoghi donde tutti quanti siamo venuti. Uno dei compiti della mia arte (se l'arte può avere un compito), lo considero soprattutto quello di evitare un danno di questo tipo, di garantire la memoria, il ricordo. Veniamo tutti quanti da una delle esperienze più terribili che l'umanità abbia mai affrontato. Pensi ai campi di sterminio. Niente è mai stato attuato di più atroce e di più assoluto. Ebbene i poeti sono qua per far sì che l'oblio non succeda. Un'umanità che dimenticasse Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, io non posso accettarla. Scrivo perché ci se ne ricordi. 2 [The danger looming over young people today is that they forget what happened, the places where we all came from. One of the duties of my art (if art can have duties), is first of all to avoid damage of this kind, to guarantee 6-Chapter 4.indd 71 27/03/2022 16:16
"Almanacco dell'orrore popolare" ed. by Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (Bologna, Odoya, 2021), 2021
forthcoming in "Almanacco dell'orrore popolare" ed. by Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (Bologn... more forthcoming in "Almanacco dell'orrore popolare" ed. by Fabio Camilletti and Fabrizio Foni (Bologna, Odoya, 2021)
Cominciamo dal principio, cioè dall'etimo: qual è l'etimologia di 'etimologia'? Secondo l'Oxford ... more Cominciamo dal principio, cioè dall'etimo: qual è l'etimologia di 'etimologia'? Secondo l'Oxford Concise Dictionary of Etymology viene dal greco etymología, che significa "analisi di una parola per trovare la sua vera origine", o, più appropriatamente, "studio del vero significato di una parola", poiché logía significa 'studio, discorso' e tò étymon vale 'senso vero' come aggettivo sostantivizzato di étymos, 'vero, reale, fattuale' e in collegamento con eteós 'vero, genuino, esatto'. Cicerone latinizza etymología in veriloquium, come ricorda Quintiliano (Institutio oratoria, i 6, 28-29).
Che Leopardi possa essere stato di ispirazione per i racconti leviani di matrice fantastica o fan... more Che Leopardi possa essere stato di ispirazione per i racconti leviani di
matrice fantastica o fantascientifica è stato ipotizzato, ma esplorato solo in parte. In particolare, alcune prospettive di Levi sulle macchine e sui rapporti fra tecnologia e società suggeriscono una forte affinità di vedute
con Leopardi. Casi di studio sono offerti dalle novelle il Versificatore (1960) e Procacciatori d’affari (1970).
"Per un lessico leopardiano", 2011
Through the analysis of the words “barbarie, “ignoranza” and “perfezione” and of the ambiguous se... more Through the analysis of the words “barbarie, “ignoranza” and “perfezione” and of the ambiguous sense(s) they have in the diary, the essay aims at outlining some characteristics of the language of the Zibaldone - a rich and complex language but not always explicit as that of other Leopardi’s works. Some peculiarities of this language enlighten the provocative originality of the poet’s thought. This way I introduce an image of the Zibaldone as the laboratory where Leopardi’s vocabulary is selected and powered. I also suggest that these procedures are more similar to the concentration of the poetic word, rather than to the analytic decomposition that is typical of philosophy.
Attraverso l’analisi dei lemmi “barbarie”, “ignoranza” e “perfezione”, e delle ambiguità di senso che essi mostrano nel diario, il saggio si propone di mostrare alcune caratteristiche della lingua zibaldoniana, ricca e complessa, ma non sempre esplicita come quella delle altre opere. Specifiche peculiarità di tale lingua si rivelano come spie della provocatoria novità del pensiero di Leopardi.Si presenta così un’interpretazione dello Zibaldone come luogo della selezione e del potenziamento del lessico leopardiano; procedimenti che risultano più simili alla concentrazione del dettato poetico che alla scomposizione analitica tipica delle materie filosofiche.
Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2015
La Scienza Nuova di Giambattista Vico (1744) conobbe un particolare successo editoriale e di ric... more La Scienza Nuova di Giambattista Vico (1744) conobbe un particolare successo editoriale e di ricezione nell'Europa della Restaurazione, a cominciare dalla prima edizione ottocentesca (1801). Un ruolo chiave ebbero le traduzioni in tedesco, inglese e francese. Il saggio qui proposto, che prende le mosse dal un precedente studio della ricezione di Vico in Italia, mira a fare il punto sulle traduzioni di Vico in inglese, francese e tedesco nella Restaurazione, e di indicare possibili nuove piste di ricerca che mettano al centro questi testi, il loro linguaggio, le scelte linguistiche che li caratterizzano, come dispositivi chiave nell'immissione della Scienza nuova nella cultura europea e della sua fortuna. Abstract: Giambattista Vico's New Science (1744) was particularly successful in Europe in the Bourbon Restoration years, starting with the first 19 th century edition (1801). Translations into French, English and German were key in this posthumous success. This essay, inspired by the author's previous work on Vico's reception in Italy, sums up what we know about the translations of Vico in English, German and French in the Bourbon Restoration era, and points to possible new research paths centered on Vico's translations, their language, and the linguistic choices they feature, as key means of the penetration of the New Science in European culture and its success. Introduzione Il saggio qui proposto muove dal mio precedente studio della ricezione di Vico nell'Italia della Restaurazione, con particolare attenzione alla ricezione obliqua di Giacomo Leopardi: questo è stato pubblicato nel mio primo libro, Rebuilding Post-Revolutionary Italy: Leopardi and Vico's New Science (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2018). Nel mio precedente lavoro, incentrato sulla letteratura italiana, le traduzioni non hanno avuto che attenzione minima, mentre la penetrazione di Vico in altri contesti linguistici è un argomento di assoluto interesse e non completamente esplorato. In questo contributo farò il punto su ciò che sappiamo delle traduzioni di Vico in inglese, francese e tedesco nella Restaurazione, e indicherò possibili nuove piste di ricerca che mettano al centro questi testi, il loro linguaggio, le scelte linguistiche che li caratterizzano, come dispositivi chiave nell'immissione della Scienza nuova nella cultura europea. Questo lavoro è anche in buona parte ispirato ai lavori in corso presso il Laboratorio Leopardi della Sapienza di Roma, di cui faccio parte, e che, partito da un'analisi lessicale del macrotesto leopardiano, ha presto provveduto ad aprirsi alla sfera della traduzione osservando le differenziazioni dei lemmi scelti, tra cui sentimentale, verosimile, barbarie, felicità, in autori scriventi nelle lingue europee della Restaurazione 1. Tradurre
Poster of "Unprivileged pasts, unwritten origins" Research Workshop
What do Conspiracy Theories, Miracles, Magic, Paranoia, and the Placebo Effect have in common? Th... more What do Conspiracy Theories, Miracles, Magic, Paranoia, and the Placebo Effect have in common? The fact that they are BELIEVED. Come and join us in Warwick University.
Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), poet and thinker, is perceived in his homeland as a classical autho... more Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), poet and thinker, is perceived in his homeland as a classical author; everybody studies his works at school, and some students still get to learn by heart some of his verses. Leopardi can be loved or hated by students: in fact, his radical pessimism can either meet a teenager’s anxiety and insecurity, or generate a sense of rejection. Many students perceive Leopardi as ‘depressed’ or ‘depressing’.
Nevertheless, Leopardi has been surprisingly popular in recent years at least in three relevant areas of the new media:
- On Facebook: during a research I carried out in 2011, I found out that there were at least 50 Facebook pages in Italian dedicated to Giacomo Leopardi. In particular, what attracted my attention was the identification that boys and girls that identified themselves as ‘Emo’ felt with Leopardi’s figure.
- In cultural journalism. Giacomo Leopardi’s quotations are frequently used on newspapers – expecially in editorials - to underpin the journalist reflection. This happens not only to stress the writer’s culture, but also because Leopardi’s words are sometimes perceived of being particularly significant and synthetic.
- On the editorial market. While some Italian classic authors still lack modern editions, Leopardi is the only author who is republished with updating inserts. In fact, the astrophisic Margherita Hack has republished in 2003 the Storia dell’Astronomia, an early work by Leopardi (1815), by updating it, and the writer and jurist Franco Cordero has republished in 2011 the Discorso sopra lo stato presente dei costumi degli italiani (1824), adding his thoughts on the same theme, ‘Pensieri di un italiano d’oggi’.
What do all this phenomena have in common? They are all tendencies to actualize Leopardi’s figure and message, to give new life to his words. But what does this perception of Leopardi tell us about our society? Why is Leopardi perceived this way, which seems noteworthly more intense compared to his contemporaries’ reception? What are the responsibilities of school and academia in this hyper-actualization of Leopardi’s message?
