From Pessimism to Poetic Realism: The Neapolitan Effect on Giacomo Leopardi
Distraction Theory in the light of Vedanta
On October 2, 1833, Giacomo Leopardi arrives in Naples with his friend Antonio Ranieri. The city is a crossroads of cultural ferment and rigid Bourbon censorship, which in 1835 would halt the publication of his works. Leopardi, initially attracted by the climate and environment, soon clashes with the intellectual environment's hostility towards his materialism. He observes with disgust the rituals of a bourgeoisie dedicated to "cerimonie gastronomiche" ["gastronomic ceremonies"]. This very intolerance towards Neapolitan society's superficiality would translate into the sarcastic verses of "I nuovi credenti" ["The New Believers"], where the poet rails against those "anime elette / a goder delle cose: in voi natura / le intenzioni sue vede perfette" ["chosen souls / to enjoy things: in you nature / sees its intentions perfected"], ironizing about the city where "s'arma Napoli a gara alla difesa / de' maccheroni suoi; ch'ai maccheroni / anteposto il morir, troppo le pesa" ["Naples arms itself in competition to defend / its macaroni; that preferring death to macaroni / weighs too heavily on it"].
Admiration and Openness
Philosopher Benedetto Croce recognized two key elements in this polemic: the dialectic between abstract thought and sensory concreteness. According to the Neapolitan philosopher, Leopardi had grasped the conflict between his philosophical idealism and the typical Neapolitan people's adherence to concrete reality. However, the violence of sarcasm concealed an unconscious admiration for Neapolitan vitality, which forced the poet to confront "new registers of understanding."
The symbolic value of Neapolitan realism: Croce read the "maccheroni" ["macaroni"] not just as a metaphor for materialism, but as an emblem of the relationship between ethics and aesthetics. Neapolitan happiness, although born of ignorance, represented for Leopardi a challenge to his philosophy of pessimism, pushing him toward a more mature form of poetic realism. In his analysis of Leopardi's works, Croce emphasized how the Neapolitan sojourn had influenced the poet's anthropological turn: "Il contatto con Napoli […] sollecitò Leopardi ad aprire la sua sensibilità a una percezione nuova della realtà" ["Contact with Naples [...] prompted Leopardi to open his sensitivity to a new perception of reality"], through the encounter with landscapes, flavours, and traditions that enriched his poetic language.
Distraction
His theory of distraction, already present in the "Zibaldone" since 1819, finds concrete application here. Distraction as "discontinuity of consciousness" allows one to elude a rational truth that "immobilizes the individual." Leopardi's thought on distraction presents interesting analogies with some concepts of Vedānta, the ancient Indian philosophy. Just as in Vedānta, the concept of māyā (illusion) veils true reality, for Leopardi distraction can manifest as a "trap" leading to inaction, or transform into a path of awareness. This parallel, though not derived from direct influence, illuminates the universal dimension of Leopardi's reflection.
Both visions recognize suffering as an intrinsic condition of existence. However, responses to this condition diverge significantly: while Vedānta proposes transcendence through spiritual knowledge, Leopardi develops a strategy of "existential survival" through conscious distraction. The latter isn't mere escape, but a sophisticated mechanism of psychological protection that allows one to bear the weight of truth without being crushed by it.
The crucial difference lies in the final approach: for Vedānta, acceptance of reality is a means for spiritual transformation; for Leopardi, it's the arrival point of rational awareness that finds its highest expression in dignity. Distraction thus becomes a "metaphysical analgesic," not to deny pain but to make it habitable, transforming it from total paralysis into a condition of possible action and thought. It's a middle way between denial and surrender, finding in the awareness of one's limits its highest expression of human dignity.
La Ginestra ["The Broom"]
In 1836, while cholera devastates Naples, Leopardi takes refuge on Vesuvius. "Al misero / cui di materna mano / l'ultimo sorso è dato" ["To the wretched one / to whom from maternal hand / the last sip is given"] (La Ginestra): these verses evoke human fragility in the face of death. Distraction, paradoxically, doesn't eliminate pain, but makes it tolerable, like a metaphysical analgesic. "Senza illusioni non c'è vita né azione" ["Without illusions there is neither life nor action"], Leopardi states.
The verses of "La Ginestra" show nature that, even amid destruction and suffering, continues to bloom:
"E tu, lenta ginestra,
Che di selve odorate
Queste campagne dispogliate adorni,
Anche tu presto alla crudel possanza
Soccomberai del sotterraneo foco,
Che ritornando al loco
Già noto, stenderà l'avaro lembo
Su tue molli foreste. E piegherai
Sotto il fascio mortal non renitente
Il tuo capo innocente:
Ma non piegato insino allora indarno
Codardamente supplicando innanzi
Al futuro oppressor; ma non eretto
Con forsennato orgoglio inver le stelle,
Né sul deserto, dove
E la sede e i natali
Non per voler ma per fortuna avesti;
Ma più saggia, ma tanto
Meno inferma dell'uom, quanto le frali
Tue stirpi non credesti
O dal fato o da te fatte immortali."[And you, slow broom plant,
That with fragrant forests
Adorns these stripped fields,
You too will soon succumb
To the cruel power of the underground fire,
Which returning to its
Known place, will spread its greedy edge
Over your soft forests. And you will bend
Under the mortal burden without resistance
Your innocent head:
But not bent until then in vain
Cowardly begging before
The future oppressor; but not erected
With frenzied pride towards the stars,
Nor on the desert, where
Your home and birth
You had not by will but by fortune;
But wiser, and so much
Less infirm than man, as your frail
Species you did not believe
Made immortal by fate or by yourself.]
In these verses, Leopardi addresses the broom flower, a symbol of resilience growing on Vesuvius's slopes. The poet recognizes the broom's fragility, destined to succumb to the volcano's power, but admires its dignity and ability to bloom even in a hostile environment. The broom, though aware of its mortality, neither humbles itself by begging the "futuro oppressor" ["future oppressor"], nor rises with "forsennato orgoglio" ["frenzied pride"] towards the sky. Leopardi emphasizes the broom's wisdom, which accepts its mortal condition without illusions of immortality, unlike humans.
“For the discriminating sage, everything is suffering"
thus wrote Śaṅkara, the greatest exponent of Advaita Vedānta (Brahma-sūtra-bhāṣya, 1.1.2).
Leopardi sees in the broom the natural incarnation of this truth: the acceptance of impermanence, without illusions or false consolations. But while Śaṅkara sees in this awareness the push towards the permanent (the Brahman), Leopardi finds in the dignity of acceptance, in blooming despite everything, the highest possible wisdom. Two different paths starting from the same lucid vision of reality.
Silent
In the comparison between Leopardi and Indian philosophy, a silent dialogue emerges about the nature of suffering and wisdom. If Vesuvius represents the inevitable destiny of destruction, the broom and Vedantic thought offer two different ways of facing the same truth: transcendence through Brahman or the dignity of acceptance. In cholera-stricken Naples, among the broom's fragrances and the volcano's shadow, Leopardi finds his answer: not liberation from pain, but the nobility of consciously blooming in the face of it. Two paths that start from the same lucid vision of reality, reaching opposite but equally profound destinations.
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