2. Giacomo Leopardi The Romantic Age

3. Gens Leoparda n When does Leopardi write the “Story of his Soul”? n How does he describe his native town n The function of memories (5) n The Leopardis. C ount Monaldo and Countess Adelaide n Leopardi’s thoughts on his father (11) n Leopardi on childhood (11) n Ungaretti’s words on Leopardi’s memory (12) n Main themes of Leopardi’s poetry and works n Leopardi’s theory of “double objects” (13-15) n Leopardi’s theory of translation (14)

4. The Zibaldone n Title of the collection and content (71) n From the considerations of the Romantic poetic ideals to Leopardi’s (72-4) n What is poetry for Leopardi and how can it be destroyed by the Romantics (74) n Leopardi on “illusions” (75-79) n Leopardi on Tasso (76) n Leopardi on death and friends (76-7) n On language and gestures (77) n On reading (79) n About Lord Byron (79)

5. n On works representing despair and the “inevitable unhappiness of life” (80) n On fame and pleasures (80) n On the common currency of times (81) n Infinite and indefinite, memories, vagueness (82-94-95) n Life as loss (82) n Historical pessimism as reflected in the fable of Psyche (82-3) n The reasons of the richness of the Italian language (84-5) n Rapidity and concision (or the use of metaphors) (85) n Words and ideas as one inseparable unity (88) n The modernization of Italian (89-90) n Life (91) n Dante and Tasso (92)