Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-22-2013 12:00 AM Beyond the Suffering of Being: Desire in Giacomo Leopardi and Samuel Beckett Roberta Cauchi-Santoro The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Jonathan Boulter The University of Western Ontario Joint Supervisor Luca Pocci The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Roberta Cauchi-Santoro 2013 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Italian Literature Commons, and the Modern Languages Commons Recommended Citation Cauchi-Santoro, Roberta, "Beyond the Suffering of Being: Desire in Giacomo Leopardi and Samuel Beckett" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1247. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1247 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. BEYOND THE SUFFERING OF BEING: DESIRE IN GIACOMO LEOPARDI AND SAMUEL BECKETT (Thesis format: monograph) by Roberta Cauchi-Santoro Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Roberta Cauchi-Santoro 2013 Abstract In this dissertation, I question critical approaches that argue for Giacomo Leopardi’s and Samuel Beckett’s pessimism and nihilism.