This volume offers a study of the significance, meaning and function of proper names in Leopardi’s poetic and prose works from the Canti to the Paralipomeni, through the Operette morali. In particular, it configures itself as an analysis of the relationship between proper names and the self, conceived as either a speaking I with a distinct name within the text (e.g. Bruto, Saffo, Filippo Ottonieri), and also interacting with other named figures (e.g. Timandro and Eleandro, the characters of the Paralipomeni), or as a projection of the self into an ‘other’ self evoked and endowed with a discrete identity, such as Silvia, Nerina, luna, or ginestra. The author focuses on how the choice and use of particular names - or words that function as proper names – operates in both the creation of the text (by Leopardi) and its reading (by the audience). Divided into five chapters, the monograph takes a radical and systematic textual approach, differing from traditional Leopardi scholarship in the attention devoted to the relationship between text and reader, and the role of the reader in the construction and experience of the Leopardian text.
