Literature

Reflections upon literature, and poetry

 in particular, are naturally very rich in Leopardi; although it must be noted how rare is instead any kind of consideration on his own works.

Amongst the many pathways possible, also outside the Zibaldone, we would like to draw attention to that of  “literary criticism”. As concerns his beloved Greek and Latin authors, we should recall his translations and his numerous studies of a philological nature. As to Italian literature, the most interesting thing is without doubt the creation of two highly personal anthologies (the Crestomazie), one for prose and one for poetry.

In the Zibaldone his thoughts on this theme are countless:

“From nothing in literature one passes to half and the truth, then to refinement” [1] – unlike other arts, it has no universal rules [154-6, 1754-5] – relationships with language, with the sciences and philosophy [239-45, 1252-3, 1708-9, 2103-5, 3318-38] – in any form of literature it will be difficult to find more than “two excellent and top level writers for the same genre” [801-4] – in modern times there is no literature, and if there is it is “of an ancient character, and it is almost the splicing of the ancient onto the modern” [1174-5] – “Ancient literature for all its greatness, is not enough to modern literature” [2124-6] – “For the most the literature of a nation derives from that of another” [2458-63] – the best works were created when there was no national literature or the  consciousness that one was writing a literary work [4257] – when literature becomes decadent praise for would-be writers increases [4268-71] – today there are more writers than readers, and “and each one writes only for those he knows” [4301, 4354] – birth of poetry before prose [4343-50] – “To take away from studies, take away from the civilised world  pleasant literature is like taking away spring from the year, from life youth” [4469].