Abstract

This article analyses Emanuele Severino’s interpretation of the Zibaldone passage (259-262) in which Leopardi addresses the question of the life-giving function of the genius artworks. According to Severino, the genius artworks manage to render that life of which boredom deprives us because the force with which the nullity of all things is seen deludes the genius into feeling eternal. Severino’s interpretation, however, does not take into account the answer that Leopardi himself gave to this question. An answer not of a metaphysical nature, but anthropological and poetological which can be found on pages 214-215 to which Leopardi refers in the passage on the genius artworks.