With rhymes about the human fate. Philosophy in the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi Cover Image

With rhymes about the human fate. Philosophy in the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi
With rhymes about the human fate. Philosophy in the poetry of Giacomo Leopardi

Author(s): Aleksandra Koman
Subject(s): Philosophy, Poetry, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Leopardi; philosophy; poetry; philosophical discourse; literary discourse; figures of speech; imagination; cognition; truth

Summary/Abstract: Giacomo Leopardi is one of those authors whose texts oscillate on the border between literature and philosophy. It is true that Leopardi does not use traditional forms of philosophical expression, but the fact is that most of the considerations of the Italian thinker are expressed by the simultaneous conduct of two discourses: literary and philosophical. Leopardi experimented almost every form of literary expression, but he went down in history mainly as a poet, who contained a significant part of his highest beliefs in poetry. The practice of philosophizing through poetry is nothing new in literature, and the various connections between literature and philosophy are almost ancient, but the ongoing discussions in the world of Italian critics about the relationship between Leopardi and philosophy suggest that the reflective lyrics of the famous poet from Recanati are an noteworthy case. This article is a reflection on the use of figures of speech in the process of explaining the worldview by Leopardi, with particular emphasis on metaphor, and on the overall impact of the poetic medium on the presentation and shaping of adopted ideology.

  • Issue Year: 59/2020
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 101-114
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English