History trapped into eternity: Kinesis and stasis in The Leopard

Abstract

The complex and often paradoxical representation of time and history in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s The Leopard has its roots in an existential vision which is charged with different meanings and shadowed by a dark pessimism. In order to convey his peculiar perspective, Lampedusa uses specific narrative techniques, transforming earthly elements into eternal symbols. In turn, Luchino Visconti, in his movie adaptation of the novel, translates these multi-layered symbols into visual representations, emphasising some of them more than others, and giving even more substance to the material as a vehicle of complex, theoretical reflections. The analysis of the emblematic role of landscape, interiors, objects and animals in The Leopard, both in the written approach and the visual re-interpretation, offers new insights into a novel and a movie which have always divided critics, who have alternatively considered them a celebration of immobilism or a faithful historical depiction.