Pavesian leopardism

Abstract

This work starts from the unavoidable Leopardi’s function in the italian Novecento, either as a personal myth –in the images of the titanic hero or the adolescent excluded from the world- either as a model to emulate or surpass, and it intends to investigate –focusing on Il mestiere di vivere and on the critical writings about the pavesian poetic of myth, the symbol and the ecstatic instant- the relevance in this poetry (which arises from 1942) of a reflexive background whose main reference, among others here not mentioned, is Leopardi. There is an affinity between Pavese’ s concept of the image-remembrance or image-discovery and «l’immagine antica» of Leopardi. This affinity works in two levels: in the dialogue with Leopardi’ s anthropological reflection and in the powerful influence of Leopardi’ s myth as a character, both of them combining their respective aspects: the vital and reflexive, the existential and literary, thanks to the identification of living and style in both authors. However, the concept of time-remembrance as the recuperation of the «fanciullesco » as well as the mythical past, previous to the time of reflection, will have connotations and developments in Pavese, through Vico’ s thought, which, in other aspects, separates him from the poet of Recanati.