Ricerc@Sapienza

The project seeks to continue a fruitful research begun in 2011, and continued in two further stages thanks to university funding, with the aim of establishing a Leopardi Lexicon. We are convinced that only through a close study of an author¿s exact use of words, their context and interrelationships, it is possible to reach an understanding of his or her thought structures. Leopardi¿s poetry and prose are particularly suited to this type of innovative investigation because in them can be seen a network of semantic and lexical relationships that tends toward a system in which the lexical choices are never casual. This study is facilitated by the fact that the Zibaldone is a unique work of its kind, in which this system takes a concrete form, anticipating cognitive networks. On the strength of its success in Italy and abroad, the well-established working group on Lessico Leopardiano at Sapienza, coordinated by Franco D¿Intino (PI for this project , and Director of the Lab Leopardi Sapienza) is widening the scope of its research to the whole of the XIXth century, through collaboration with another research group within the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy: Revolution Restoration Risorgimento. Italian Literature 1789-1870, co-ordinated by Silvia Tatti within the Italianists¿ Association (ADI) . The common goal is to explore the expressive, linguistic, and semantic systems pertaining to the aesthetic discourses and literary practices of the performative arts (melodrama, theatre, music etc.) of the century that sees the growth of the modern idea of a specifically Italian linguistic and literary space, and vis-à-vis other languages and literatures. The exploration of leopardian lexicon, which lies at the foundation of this research, will thus widen and deepen its scope by addressing literary, musical and theatre sources. This will enable this investigation to place Leopardi¿s language within the whole lexical/semantic/cultural system of its time.