ABSTRACT
The title Saturn has several meanings, but probably the most significant one, from the original Latin, is that of a mixed or hybrid literary genre. This leads directly to the notion of satire, a word derived from 'satura' and linked to the presence in such a genre of a satirical element. Saturn has been characterized by Jared Becker as 'the satire of all systems', and in 'Satura I' Eugenio Montale focuses extensively on systematic constructions of history. Conventional historiographical ideas of progress in time, and indeed the notion of time itself as an irreversible linear phenomenon, are constant targets of Eugenio Montale's attempts in Satura to question and undermine the principles of their perception and organization of reality. In 'Satura II', the last and longest section of the book, Eugenio Montale returns to public, historical themes and polemics in numerous poems, echoing and re-examining the basic thematic repertoire of 'Satura I' in a greater variety of musical registers.
