The function of nature in Leopardian literature as an illustration of European culture and art

This essay was written as part of an exam in my Italian literature course, which I translated from Italian to English.

In his poetry L’infinito (The Infinite, 1819), the 19th century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi said “Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle”, which translates to “this solitary hill was always dear to me”. This is in direct contrast with the way he later described his native land as his “natio selvaggio borgo” or “savage native village”.  Thus in Leopardian theory, the characterization of nature is extremely complex and evolves with time and related experiences. Consequently, it is only logical to study the ambivalent link between man and Nature in the Leopardian school of thought, as an illustration of Nature’s representation in European culture and art. We will first see how Nature is perceived by some as a benevolent entity, and then how Nature is sometimes characterized as an antagonist. 

           In the first phase of his theory, called historical pessimism, Leopardi sees nature as a maternal figure and unhappiness comes solely from the historical context of the multitude of political changes which was a defining aspect of 19th century Europe. In the poem The Infinite, he describes the way he goes back to his childhood land in thoughts and is accordingly content. The vago, faintness, of the beautiful landscape is what allows this peaceful state of being. This recalls other pieces of art such as Friedrich’s painting Wanderer above the sea of fog (1928), in which the protagonist, facing the other way, is observing Nature : the man’s anonymity – as his face is not visible to the public – establishes a focus on Nature. Nature is also an outlet allowing a deep reflection to take place, for example in Leopardi’s Nocturnal song of a wandering shepherd of Asia, where the main character uses the figure of the moon to ask himself several rhetorical questions regarding the meaning of life. 
Leopardi’s near obsession with Nature is found again in Italo Calvino’s novel Marcovaldo in which the stars and the countryside are ways of eluding the life of the proletariat. Again in Balzac’s The Magic Skin and The Wild Ass’s Skin the French countryside cures the wounds of a man, caused by a life of sin in Paris. Similarly, Parini writes about the men living in the Italian countryside, both full of life and hard work. 

Moreover, with Foscolo and the Panismo school of thought, Nature is the mirror of the human soul and reflects its emotions such as the joy Jacopo Ortis felt after his first kiss with Teresa in the author’s The last letters of Jacopo Ortis. The same role is found in Wordsworth’s poetry during his time near the English lakes. Similarly, in Greek mythology, the island of Delos offers a safe haven for the human girl Leto, pregnant with Zeus’ baby and running away from the fury of his wife. As such, Nature appears for some artists as kind and even a mother figure to men. 

However, Nature can also be indifferent to the suffering of men and even an enemy. In Greek mythology Gaia, the Earth, is an entity capable of cruelty, sending a scorpio to kill Orion.  In The raft of Medusa, Géricault depicts the aftermath of the destruction of a ship, victim of the sea’s uneven temper. Likewise, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Englishman Coleridge tells the tale of the death of an albatross by a cruel sailor, which results in the death of the entire ship’s crew, one by one, except the sailor, who lives only to warn others never to unleash Nature’s fury. Here however, Nature and humanity are portrayed as two opposite sides, though uneven, of a conflict, and man is no longer the unassuming victim of cosmic inhumanity. He becomes a worthy opponent to Nature’s wrath. In Parini’s L’insalubrità dell’aria, the negative effect of man is acknowledged in an ecological context, and so Nature and men are in conflict not due to Nature’s cruelty but because of men’s. 

In the Leopardian line of thought on cosmic pessimism, Nature is seen as a sort of ‘evil step-mother’, entirely unaffected by men’s struggles, who are put on earth to die, as depicted in the poem A Silvia. In The Evening After the Holy Day,  Nature says to the lyrical self (l’io lirico) “te nego anche la speme […] non brillin gli occhi tuoi se non di pianto” – “I also take hope away from you […] your eyes will not shine, if not for tears”-  showing its complete lack of empathy. In The dialogue of Nature with an Icelandic, Nature does not answer the man’s question about the meaning of the ephemerality of human life, who then gets ironically eaten by two starved lions, showing the devastating dismissiveness of Nature. In this, European literature loses its anthropocentric character, the notion being completely disregarded, as Nature is diametrically opposed to humanity in its permanence and centrality. Nature becomes a deictic entity in the Leopardian philosophy, a higher force man comes from and comes back to in death, answers to and yet can never question.  

To conclude, the duality of Leopardi’s Nature is reflected by the European ambivalent vision of Nature, both benevolent and an enemy. In spite of this, Leopardi holds hope for humanity as men are capable of uniting against the injustice of life, which he calls the heroic pessimism.