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The Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH, ITALIAN AND PORTUGUESE ANTAGONIST AND ENVIRONMENT: THE DUALITY OF GIACOMO LEOPARDI’S NATURE GRACE RAMBO SPRING 2015 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree in Italian Language and Literature with honors in Italian Reviewed and approved* by the following: Maria Truglio Associate Professor of Italian and Women’s Studies Thesis Supervisor and Honors Adviser Sherry Roush Associate Professor of Italian Faculty Reader * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College i ABSTRACT This paper explores the characterization of nature as seen in the works of Giacomo Leopardi. Leopardi is often compared to renowned Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and John Keats, yet his approach to understanding nature remains quite different than his English counterparts. Leopardi characterizes nature in two ways: both as a sublime environment that man may never enjoy, and as a personified deity, able to destroy all humankind with no remorse. This paper seeks to understand the duality of nature in Leopardi’s prose and poetry in the light of ecocriticism. By characterizing nature thus, Leopardi elevates its status far above that of mankind. In essence, nature becomes an entity that exists not for humanity’s exploitation or pleasure, but in spite of humanity. As Leopardi exalts nature, he offers a more eco-centric commentary on the natural world that both rejects anthropocentrism and denies the role of nature as being subject to man. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 Nature as Environment ................................................................................ 5 L’Ultimo Canto di Saffo .................................................................................................. 8 L’infinito .......................................................................................................................... 15 Alla Primavera ................................................................................................................. 17 Chapter 2 Nature as Character .................................................................................... 21 Dialogo di un Folletto e di uno Gnomo............................................................................ 24 Dialogo della Natura e di un’islandese ............................................................................ 27 Dialogo della Terra e Della Luna ..................................................................................... 32 La ginestra ........................................................................................................................ 36 Chapter 3 Leopardi in the broader scope of ecocriticism ........................................... 42 Paradigms of Leopardi’s Nature ...................................................................................... 47 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 53 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Dr. Maria Truglio and Dr. Sherry Roush, who offered constant guidance, encouragement, and the occasional calming speech for a thesis-related panic attack. Your belief in me has been invaluable. 1 Introduction If Romanticism, as understood by Donald Worster1, can be defined as an attempt to extol “an emphasis on interdependence and relatedness in nature, and an intense desire to restore man to a place of intimate intercourse with the vast organism that constitutes earth,” then Italian poet and author Giacomo Leopardi cannot necessarily be designated a Romantic writer. Although often considered akin to poets such as Wordsworth and Keats2, Leopardi understands the relationship between man and nature differently than his English counterparts, and therefore, his literary contribution to the realm of ecocriticism3 becomes equally distinctive. For Leopardi, nature exists in two differing, though interconnected, veins: nature as the sublimely beautiful environment in which man may never partake, and Nature as the supreme antagonist of man; in such a context, it may be more apt to utilize the definition of Romanticism set forth by literary critic and essayist Sebastiano Timpanaro, as a state of mind deeply dissatisfied with reality and a nostalgia for a happier past, or a world that does not exist (“The Pessimistic Materialism of Giacomo Leopardi”). This definition of Romanticism, characterized by both a sense of yearning and loss, serves Leopardi well. Obviously, scholars, critics, and poets alike assign the movement 1 Donald Worster, Hall Distinguished Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Kansas, is a leading figure in the field of environmental history and author of works such as Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination, and “The ecology of order and chaos.” 2 Analyses such as The Artifice of Reality: Poetic Style in Wordsworth, Foscolo, Keats, and Leopardi, by Karl Kroeber, “Leopardi’s Reception in England: 1837 to 1927,” by Peter Lecouras, and “Under the Volcano,” by Adam Kirsch, draw connections between Leopardi and his British contemporaries. 3 Ecocriticism, a relatively new field of analysis, is the interdisciplinary study of the connection between literature and the environment. This thesis will elaborate on this critical approach. 2 their own personal nuances; as understood in the Oxford Companion to English Literature, Romanticism signifies a general triumph of imaginative spontaneity, visionary originality, wonder, and emotional self-expression over the classical standards of balance, order, restraint, and objectivity (Birch). Each of these definitions will work to enhance a deeper understanding of Leopardi as a poet and writer, and his works in the wider scope of the time period. Leopardi distinguishes himself from the most prominent writers of the age with his dual- characterization of nature; while he abstractly reviles Nature as humankind’s adversary, he also indirectly praises “her,” offering “luminous” descriptions of nature as environment (Casale and Dooley 45), all the while rejecting any form of anthropocentrism, an ideology of which Wordsworth himself has often been accused by Romantic and ecocritical scholars alike (Bazregarzadeh and Ramazani 1). For the purpose of this research, the term nature will be presented in two forms: nature, which represents environment, and Nature, which represents a specific character in Leopardi’s prose and poetry. I will also utilize the writings of Wordsworth in the third chapter to emphasize by comparison Leopardi’s own ideas. In each depiction, Leopardi acknowledges what humankind, as a whole, does not: the inherent alterity of nature (Garrard 110). A distinct sense of ‘otherness’ pervades both Leopardi’s prose and poetry, although nature, on his terms, still evokes the nostalgia for which many scholars and critics characterize Romantic writers. As environment, nature and all its beauty remains unavailable to man; in nature’s otherness, a distinct disconnect exists that man cannot overcome. Poems such as “L’ultimo canto di Saffo” (Sappho’s Last Song, 1822), “Alla Primavera” (To Spring, 1822), and “L’infinito” (The Infinite, 1819), emphasize such a disconnection, revealing how deeply Leopardi believes that nature dooms man to unhappiness. Within these descriptions, one can detect the distinct pessimism with which scholars and critics 3 often associate Leopardi as a thinker, poet, and author. However, this pessimism couples directly with some of the most sentimental and exquisite descriptions of nature existing in the Romantic literature today. As a character, Nature remains one of Leopardi’s most complex and well-developed personas, standing contrary to and above man in the grand hierarchy of existence. Works such as “La ginestra o il fiore del deserto” (The Broom or the Desert Flower, 1836), as well as prose from Leopardi’s Operette Morali (Moral Works, 1824), depict Nature in such a way. When nature is not characterized as the idyllic world in which man may never partake, it is instead seen either as the destroyer of man, or contaminated by man’s presumptuousness. Nature, in a general sense, is often written as if it were a deity, overtaking any traditional representation of God. The woes of man can be and often are blamed on Nature; in essence, Leopardi has “dethroned” God and installed another all-powerful entity worthy of man’s censure and disappointment (Woodbridge 117). God does not threaten man with natural disasters such as volcanic eruption, as discussed in “La ginestra,” but Nature does. It is to Nature that man must answer. The most developed example of Nature in the role of character certainly can be found in Leopardi’s famous poem, “La ginestra.” In this poem, consisting of seven stanzas, Leopardi outlines mankind’s mistake in the belief that it is anything but insignificant, and emphasizes that the humble acceptance of triviality
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