Rebuilding post-Revolutionary Italy : Leopardi and Vico's 'New science' / Martina Piperno.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Piperno, Martina, author.

Series:

Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment ; 0435-2866 2018:04.

Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment, 0435-2866 ; 2018:04

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vico, Giambattista, 1668-1744--Criticism and interpretation.

Vico, Giambattista.

Leopardi, Giacomo, 1798-1837--Criticism and interpretation.

Leopardi, Giacomo.

Vico, Giambattista, 1668-1744. Principi di una scienza nuova.

Leopardi, Giacomo, 1798-1837.

Vico, Giambattista, 1668-1744.

Principi di una scienza nuova (Vico, Giambattista).

Knowledge, Theory of.

Imagination.

Cycles.

Intellectual life.

Criticism and interpretation.

Italy--Intellectual life--19th century.

Italy.

Physical Description:

xiii, 266 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Leopardi and Vico's 'New science'

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Voltaire Foundation, [2018]

Summary:

"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" --Page v.

Contents:

Vico's legacy, Vico's 'heir'

Diffraction

The structure of this work

1. Forms of Italian modernity

The power of the origins

Belief

2. Principium

The pride, the origins and the destiny of the nation

Epics, poetry, creation and nation-building

3. Fictio

Redefining fiction

Translating and mediating the ancient world

Was Vico Classicist or Romantic?

Fiction and/as belief

4. Mythos

Mytho-logein: Vico and Leopardi as mythologists

Towards 'Alla Primavera': Leopardi's itineraries in myth (1815-1818)

'Alla Primavera': about (un)poetic logic

5. Philology and epos

Florence 1827-1828: refoundation, recovery, reconstruction

Zibaldone 4311-4417: Leopardi inside Homer's system

6. Recourse

Rereading Vico in post-Revolutionary Naples: history, progress, perfectibility

'Cantare la religione civile': Vico's ideas in poetry

Regress, disbelief and fable in Leopardi's last works.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-259) and index.

ISBN:

9780729412087

0729412083

OCLC:

1031325070