From Fantasy to Imagination a Study of Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics
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Italo Calvino's Wakeful Phenomenology
University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Senior Honors Projects Honors Program at the University of Rhode Island 2007 Toward Salvation: Italo Calvino’s Wakeful Phenomenology May C. Peckham University of Rhode Island, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Fiction Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Peckham, May C., "Toward Salvation: Italo Calvino’s Wakeful Phenomenology" (2007). Senior Honors Projects. Paper 39. http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/39http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/39 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at the University of Rhode Island at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Peckham 1 May C. Peckham University of Rhode Island Spring 2007 Toward Salvation: Italo Calvino’s Wakeful Phenomenology The luxuriance of the terrace corresponds to the desire of each member of the family. For Mrs. Palomar it was natural to extend to the plants the attention she reserved for individual things, chosen and made her own through an inner identification and thus becoming part of a composition with multiple variations, as an emblematic collection; but this spiritual dimension is lacking in the other members of the family. In the daughter because youth cannot an should not become fixed on the here but only on the further-on, the over there; in the husband because he was too late in freeing himself from his youthful impatiences and in understanding (only in theory) that salvation lies solely in applying oneself to the things that are there. -
In Retrospect: Calvino's Cosmicomics
NATURE|Vol 460|16 July 2009 OPINION In Retrospect: Calvino’s Cosmicomics The soaring imagination of the Italian author abounds in a new compilation of his cosmic fables. Mostly written in the age of the space race, they are heavily informed by science, finds Alan Lightman. In one of the stories in Italo Calvino’s The ‘As Long as the Sun Lasts’, Qfwfq’s grandparents Complete Cosmicomics, the inimitable char- trade insults about which stars to set up camp acter named Qfwfq is gambling with Dean (k) near: “And why not the other one? The bigger PENGUIN yK in the nothingness before time and space they are, the more I trust them.” “Are you mad, began. “I don’t want to boast,” announces don’t you know what that is? Don’t you know Qfwfq, “but from the start I was willing to bet about the blue ones? They burn so fast, you there was going to be a universe, and I hit the don’t even notice, and barely a couple of thou- nail on the head … We were always gambling, sand millennia go by and you’ve already got to the Dean and I, because there was really noth- start packing.” Colloquialisms nestle happily ing else to do, and also because the only proof with scientific terminology. I existed was that I bet with him, and the only We never know who these cosmic supermen proof he existed was that he bet with me.” are, where they came from, or how they got to Wildly inventive, philosophical and play- be where they are. -
The Complete Cosmicomics 1St Edition Pdf Free
THE COMPLETE COSMICOMICS 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Italo Calvino | 9780544577879 | | | | | The Complete Cosmicomics 1st edition PDF Book This article about a collection of short stories is a stub. View all 21 comments. The distance between the Earth and Moon is so short that a tall ladder is enough to get there, and gravity reverses midway so you are drawn to the Moon past a certain point, and appear to be hanging upside down from the Earth perspective. Las Cosmicomicas. My second encounter with Calvino was just as fortuitous and spilled off the page into real life just as much as my first -- so much, in fact, that I bought another one of this books almost immediately upon finishing this one because I just want to glut myself on Calvino's unequaled prose. Upside down for me, not for him: he crawls out of his tunnel, he walks head down, while nothing about his person is ruffled, not his white hair, nor his beard green with mold, nor the tatters of sackcloth that cover his emaciated loins. Yet what Calvino achieves in Cosmicomics is unparalleled. Seller Inventory The first U. Italo Calvino. I'm not criticizing the translator's work, so much as saying that maybe these particular stories need to be read in their original form. Storytelling at its best. A Sign in Space — The idea that the galaxy slowly revolves becomes a story about a being who is desperate to leave behind some unique sign of his existence. The definitive edition of Calvino's cosmicomics, bringing together all of these enchanting stories—including some never before translated—in one volume for the first time In Italo Calvino's cosmicomics, primordial beings cavort on the nearby surface of the moon, play marbles with atoms, and bear ecstatic witness to Earth's first dawn. -
BOOKS by ITALO Calvina the Baron in the Trees The
,. BOOKS BY ITALO CALVINa The Baron in the Trees The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount The Path to the Nest of Spiders Cosmicomics t zero The Watcher and Other Stories Invisible Cities The Castle of Crossed Destinies Italian Folktales If on a winter's night a traveler Marcovaldo, or The seasons in the city Difficult Loves Mr. Palomar The Uses of Literature Under the Jaguar Sun Six Memos for the Next Millennium Road to San Giovanni Translated from the Italian by William Weaver A Harvest Book A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book Harcourt Brace & Company San Diego New York London Copyright © 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore English translation copyright © 1974 by Harcourt Brace & Company All rights reseIVed. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be mailed to: Permissions Department, Harcourt Brace & Company, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777. This is a translation of Le citta tnvisibili. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Calvino, Italo. Invisible cities. (Haxvest: pbk.) Translation of Le dna invisibili. "A Helen and Kurt Wolff book." 1. Polo, Marco, 1254?-1323?-Fiction. 2. Kublai Khan, 1216-1294-Fiction. 1. Title. [PZ3.C13956In] 1978 [PQ4809.A451 853'.9'14 77-16002 ISBN 0-15-645380-0 Printed in the United States of America YXWVUT J S 7 Cities and memory. l. -
Peter Pan Syndrome in Italo Calvino's Male Figures Jacob J
The Lost Boys of Italia: Peter Pan Syndrome in Italo Calvino’s Male Figures Jacob J. Shirley Tucson, Arizona Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Bachelor of Arts in Italian Studies University of Arizona, 2013 A Thesis presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese University of Virginia May 2015 Readers: Enrico Cesaretti Sarah Annunziato 2 Jacob J Shirley Masters Thesis The Lost Boys of Italia: Peter Pan Syndrome in Calvino’s Males ABSTRACT This paper will explore the concepts of scioltezza and the Peter Pan Syndrome as exhibited by the male protagonists in three of Italo Calvino’s key works: Pin (The Path to the Spiders’ Nests), Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò (The Baron in the Trees), and Marcovaldo (Marcovaldo). In each case, scioltezza describes the protagonist’s developmental fluidity as he approaches maturation but retains fundamentally adolescent or childlike qualities. This study will take a developmental approach to reveal elements of war, family values, and economic factors that contribute to Calvino’s portrayal of scioltezza, setting up similar yet contrasting cases of the Peter Pan Syndrome. These factors ultimately confine each protagonist to a state of arrested maturation, in which he faces an identity crisis that prevents him from reaching identity achievement or total self- authorship. In these specific cases, we will also see how the text itself mirrors these developmental crises, and how some of Italy’s pivotal moments in history have shaped this phenomenon. Ultimately, these characters and texts reflect a similar developmental plight in Italy itself. -
3 Sicari-Criticism in the USSR-FORMATTED
(Re)Defining a Literary Genre: How Italo Calvino’s Postmodern (Hyper)Novels became “Philosophical Allegories” in the USSR Ilaria Sicari Ca’ Foscari University of Venice In the Soviet era the institution of literary criticism occupied a prominent place within the complex state management of cultural production. Criticism recognized or denied the artistic value of all literary production, subjecting it to censure or ideological homologation. Thus, criticism itself was an active agent in the creation of the meaning of literary works, legitimizing through an exercise of power their aesthetic value and playing a determinant role in shaping their reception by the Soviet reader.1 The strategies used to intervene in defense of Soviet art were essentially of two kinds: first, disparaging or promoting authors; and, second, molding the content of the works according to the dictates of Socialist Realism. Both functions were exercised through reviews in the official press and critical introductions in the books edited by state publishers.2 1 Cf. Maria Zalambani, Censura, istituzioni e politica letteraria in URSS. 1964–1985 (Firenze: Firenze UP, 2009), 107‒108. 2 For a more detailed discussion on the topic, see: E. Dobrenko, I. Kalinin “Literaturnaia kritika i ideologicheskoe razmezhevanie epokhi ottepeli: 1953‒1970,” in E. Dobrenko, G. Tikhanova, eds., Istoriia russkoi literaturnoi kritiki (Moskva: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2011), 417‒76. (Re)Defining a Literary Genre 43 The Soviet Reception of Italo Calvino’s Postmodern Narratives as a Case Study To demonstrate how these domesticating strategies were implemented, we will examine the critical reception in the USSR of Italo Calvino’s postmodern works Le cosmicomiche (Cosmicomics, 1965); Il castello dei destini incrociati (The Castle of Crossed Destinies, 1969–73); Le città invisibili (Invisible Cities, 1972); and Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore (If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, 1979) because together they represent an interesting case of ideological manipulation for many reasons. -
Invisible Mathematics in Italo Calvinoss Le
Invisible Mathematics in Italo Calvino’s Le città invisibili Ileana Moreno-Viqueira Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Ileana Moreno-Viqueira All rights reserved ABSTRACT Invisible Mathematics in Italo Calvino’s Le città invisibili Ileana Moreno-Viqueira This dissertation examines the use of mathematical concepts as an essential structural and thematic element in Italo Calvino’s Le città invisibili. The author‘s conception of literature as a combinatorial art, intrinsically mathematical itself, is the point of departure. Focal to the study is Calvino’s interest in that which is an essential part of the combinatorial game and the key to Gödel Incompleteness Theory, namely, the elements of surprise and the unexpected - the exceptions to the rule. Other critical approaches to Calvino’s work, like semiotic, structuralism and scientific are interrelated to Mathematics, but what this study proposes is a strictly mathematical approach to complement that which has already been pointed out. A mathematical perspective based on an understanding of Mathematics as more than just numbers encompasses the whole analysis. Mathematics is given its proper place as a humanistic discipline. It is an interdisciplinary proposal of literature and science, pertinent to Calvino’s writing. The purpose is to unveil a “hidden math” which from the perspective of this study is an intrinsic tool in Calvino’s writing process of Città. As a versatile writer, Calvino manages to use mathematics in such subtle ways that it may not be perceptible at first sight. -
The Posthumanism of Italo Calvino's Fiabe Italiane
Fairy-Tale Metamorphosis and Becoming–Animal: The Posthumanism of Italo Calvino’s Fiabe Italiane Pablo a Marca Introduction In “Hybriditales: Posthumanizing Calvino,” Serenella Iovino describes Italo Calvino’s literary production as one of “hybriditales,” which she defines as “stories in which reality itself is a continuous flow of crossings” (2014, 220). Both in its historical construction as well as in its materiality, in these texts the human is “permeable to other natures, other matters, and other cultural agents,” meaning that being human already involves surpassing the boundaries of human “nature” (ibid., 219). Such a conception of the human is now part of theoretical discussions that fall under the label of posthumanism. While a standard definition of posthumanism does not exist, it is possible to say that posthumanist theorists typically share a suspicion regarding the historical notion of the human, which placed “man” at the center and created a series of others— woman, non-white, queer, animal, inanimate and so on—that are inferior to him. In reaction to this notion, posthumanism moves past humanism and anthropocentrism (Ferrando 2019, 24). Taking discourses themselves to be shapers of subjectivity and adopting a renewed form of materialism, posthumanists try to rethink the human from an onto–epistemological perspective. In so doing, they demonstrate the arbitrariness of categorical boundaries and address instead the flows between humans and the non-human world. Iovino finds a similar trend in Calvino’s literary production, which can be seen as a hybridization of “human nature” and the non-human world because it depicts crossings among matter, forms and signs (2014, 220). -
Hybriditales
12 Hybriditales Posthumanizing Calvino Serenella Iovino Cages and Thresholds n her essay “On Singularity and the Symbolic,” Carrie Rohman analyzes Ithe way Italo Calvino’s character Mr. Palomar muses, in silent conver- sations, about the boundaries that separate humans from other animals. Confronted with the enigmatic singularity of an albino gorilla named Snowflake, or with the neat classification of iguanas in a Parisian reptile house, Palomar searches for “an eternal or permanent system, structure, or taxonomy of meaning” (Rohman 73), a recognizable order whose valid- ity would also extend outside cages and boxes. As though challenging the Darwinian evidence of biological continuity with the implicit evocation of a Linnaeus redivivus, Palomar dreams of a nostalgic taxonomy of “fixed” forms able to “resist the flux that undoes them and mixes and reshapes [them]”— forms “separated forever from the others, as here in a row of glass case- cages of the zoo” (Palomar 86). Calvino is well aware that this dream is an artful delusion: were species separated like cages in a zoo, the order of discourse would prevail over the complexity of nature and its ongoing metamorphosis (Rohman 73). Rohman writes, “[Palomar’s] description [of the zoo] points out the exaggerated and ultimately fantas- tic idea that species are eternally distinct, that species barriers represent some permanent and reliable mode of differentiation. Rather, this passage implicitly exposes the human investment in inviolable and discreet [sic] life- forms. [. .] Palomar longs for species barriers that are clear and unas- sailable, but [. .] such longings are more akin to humanist wish- structures than anything else” (73). -
Marcovaldo: Or the Seasons in the City Pdf, Epub, Ebook
MARCOVALDO: OR THE SEASONS IN THE CITY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Italo Calvino | 121 pages | 30 Nov 1983 | Harcourt Brace International | 9780156572040 | English | Orlando, United States Marcovaldo: or the Seasons in the City PDF Book As science writer Emma Marris noted in her book Rambunctious Garden , nature does not have to be pristine or wild to yield life-changing experiences:. Bleiler Evangeline Walton Marcovaldo at the supermarket — the family visit to the supermarket where they buy nothing. La Storia by Elsa Morante. Marcovaldo revels in the natural beauty and good fortune that come to him on these occasions. The forest on the superhighway — The children help Marcovaldo to look for firewood in forest. Archibald Colquhoun, Peggy Wright. Part of what makes the stories so enjoyable is that it is easy to identify with the thoughts of the character, and even when he does silly things and gets into trouble, his actions are brought about by good or innocent intentions. Jean says. Marcovaldo, despite living in the city, identifies far more with the natural and seems to find urban life oppressive. Le cosmicomiche Cosmicomics. Ferman Andre Norton Hugh B. Language English , Italian. Name required. The tale of the cows marching through town to pasture in the hills and followed there for the summer by one of Marcovaldo's sons is another example. Louis Brigante. Under the header JavaScript select the following radio button: Allow all sites to run JavaScript recommended. Turin: Einaudi, It so happened that his wife, Domitilla, for personal reasons, bought a great quantity of sausage and turnips. Share It! Now that sausage must have been made of dog meat; the smell alone was enough to kill your appetite. -
Revising, Re-Visioning: Italo Calvino and the Politics of Play
Revising, Re-visioning: Italo Calvino and the Politics of Play Gabriel Perri Silberblatt “And Polo said: “The inferno of the living is not something that will be; it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.” ” —I.C. Invisible Cities (1972) Introduction: The “Uses of Literature” In her 1999 essay, “Lightness and Gravity: Calvino, Pynchon, and Postmodernity,” Alessia Ricciardi foregrounds a commonplace critique of Italo Calvino‟s late literary career. Citing the author‟s committed political origins in L’unità, the anti-fascist communist news daily whose staff Calvino joined in 1947, Ricciardi laments Calvino‟s alleged lost sense of social responsibility in later years: Sadly, Calvino the mature postmodernist became exactly what he feared as a young man, that is to say, a solipsistic thinker removed from the exigencies of history and, as [Mario] Benedetti would say, belonging to the “postmoderno Nazionale.”1 Ricciardi further condemns Calvino‟s late style for being invested in a kind of “formalist game that avoids any costly or serious „human‟ association.” Actually, the complex of inter-relationships between literature and politics has always been a core issue for Calvino—in a 1976 lecture revealingly entitled, “Right and Wrong Political Uses of Literature,” Calvino referred to this particular problem as the age-old “knot” whose “frayed and twisted ends” continually get “tangled around our ankles.”2 And while Ricciardi‟s criticism here is specific to Calvino‟s last few published literary works from the 1970s and 80s, we might easily push all the way back to the beginning of his career to locate the origins of such critical debates surrounding his writing. -
Calvino's Combinational Creativity
Calvino’s Combinational Creativity Calvino’s Combinational Creativity Edited by Elizabeth Scheiber Calvino’s Combinational Creativity Edited by Elizabeth Scheiber This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Elizabeth Scheiber and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8710-2 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8710-6 For Joel who always believes in me TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ........................................................................................................ ix Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Reading Calvino Reading Ariosto Natalie Berkman Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 23 Epiphanic Illuminations: Rewriting the Observatory in Italo Calvino’s Palomar and Julio Cortázar’s Prosa del Observatorio Sara Ceroni Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 41 Italo Calvino and Science Fiction: A Little Explored Reading Elio Baldi Chapter Four .............................................................................................