The Necessary Finitude: the Nietzschean Foundation of Meaning in Bufalino’s the Tale of Timeless Castle

Abstract

This paper investigates the ontological necessity of finitude through a combined literary and philosophical analysis of Gesualdo Bufalino’s The Tale of the Timeless Castle. Through the difference assessed by Martin Hägglund between the meaning of mortality and the biological event of death, it will be argued as the human finitude represents the foundational condition for existential value, identity, and joy. The second part of the essay focuses on the role of the Child (Dino) of Bufalino’s tale. Drawing on Nietzschean thought – specifically the “Three Metamorphoses” and the “Innocence of Becoming” – the paper interprets the child as the metaphorical embodiment of the Life-Affirmation. The study aims to show that it is the dissipative becoming of time that invests life with meaning, transforming the “right epilogue” of death into a liberating force that allows life to be experienced in its authentic fullness.