Ontologia e politica della consolazione in Leopardi

The essay examines the relationship between ontology and politics in Leopardi’s work with regard to the theme of consolation. It begins by outlining the development of the concept in the theological sphere, where the Christian consolatio for the consequences of sin is shown to be increasingly arduous. Then the logic of consolation is discussed in the dialectic between ‘poison’ and ‘remedy’, between evil and its possible extinction. The transformation of this topos reveals how Leopardi progressively excludes even the consolatio of philosophy. The ontological impossibility of consolation has obvious implications for Leopardi’s civil and political thought, which is discussed in the second section. The final paragraph, however, argues for the opportunity of admitting a positive sense of ‘poetic’ consolation, which, starting from the emblem of the Broom, prefigures the idea of a consolatory re-foundation of associated life itself.