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Leprosy and social exclusion in Italo Calvino’s Il visconte dimezzato and Umberto Eco’s Il nome della rosaMarcin, Sarah Elizabeth 26 July 2011 (has links)
The leper is the ultimate symbol of the social outcast. Plagued by connotations of not just contagion but of sinfulness and moral depravity, lepers have long been stigmatized and excluded from society. The Hebrew Bible declared them to be unclean, and their influence was believed to be wholly corrupting, as if their physical deformities were an external sign of their defiled souls. In the Middle Ages, those diagnosed with leprosy were made to undergo a particularly severe ritual that closely resembled the office of the dead, making them effectively dead to the world. They were then isolated from the healthy population in leprosariums, and their movements and behaviors were strictly controlled. However, their exclusion can be seen as serving a larger purpose than just the protection of normal society from infection in that it can be used by those in power as a mechanism of social control. The imputation of danger to undesirable persons of a given community ensures that they will be duly feared and ostracized. It is within this context that Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco make use of the idea of the leper as a social outlier in their novels, Il visconte dimezzato and Il nome della rosa, as a way to critique certain processes of exclusion, namely the construction and stigmatization of a social “other” as a means of maintaining social order. This report draws on the historical and literary treatments of the leper to discuss the ways in which Calvino and Eco successfully employ the image of the leper to represent the machinery of exclusion and to shed light on the continued marginalization of outcast groups down to the present day. / text
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Referências históricas e o realismo mágico em Il barone rampante, de Italo CalvinoLuciano, Kelli Mesquita [UNESP] 30 May 2012 (has links) (PDF)
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luciano_km_me_arafcl.pdf: 444820 bytes, checksum: 05d26716bd3c4301bbf7211135f7386c (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta Dissertação objetiva a análise do romance “Il barone rampante”, que faz parte da trilogia I Nostri Antenati (1950-1960), em que também estão reunidos os romances “Il visconte dimezzato” e “Il cavaliere inesistente”, de Italo Calvino (1923-1985). Buscamos analisar num primeiro momento, alguns fatores que influenciaram a escrita calviniana, como os movimentos de Resistência na Itália, que visavam lutar contra as atrocidades da Primeira e da Segunda Guerra Mundial e do fascismo, como também algumas características da estrutura da fábula, que podem ser identificadas no romance estudado, a partir das atitudes de benfeitor de Cosme que o qualificam como um herói, pois passa por diversas dificuldades e lutas em favor do bem comum de todos. Na segunda parte da Dissertação, evidenciamos algumas referências históricas feitas à Revolução Francesa e ao Iluminismo e seus pontos de intersecção com o contexto histórico, em que Calvino viveu período, que envolveu Guerras e movimentos de grande repercussão e repressão como: o fascismo, o nazismo e o socialismo; menções de espaços reais e de Instituições históricas e de referências a figuras históricas como: Napoleão Bonaparte, Rousseau, Diderot, entre outros. No final da Dissertação, apontamos certas características que aproximam Il barone rampante a variedade do realismo mágico metafísico, como, por exemplo, a decisão do protagonista, Cosme de morar sobre as árvores, entre outros eventos. Além disso, comentamos algumas significações alegóricas em relação ao contexto histórico da narrativa, que remete na realidade ao século XX, época em que Calvino viveu e sobre a alegoria do intelectual Cosme a partir da sua mudança de ponto de vista sobre as árvores, que induzem a reflexão pela necessidade da valorização da educação e pela... / This thesis aims to analyze the novel Il barone rampante, which is part of the trilogy I nostri Antenati (1950-1960), who are also gathered in the novels Il visconte dimezzato and Il cavaliere inesistente by Italo Calvino (1923-1985).We analyze at first, some factors that influenced the writing calviniana, as movements of Resistance in Italy, aimed at fighting against the atrocities of the First and Second World War and fascism, but also some characteristics of the structure of the fable, which can be study identified the novel, from the attitudes of benefactor of Cosme which qualify as a hero, which goes through many hardships and struggles in favor of good all in common. In the second part of the dissertation, we noted some historical references made in the novel, about the French Revolution and the Enlightenment and their points of intersection with the historical context in which Calvino lived, involving wars and movements of great impact and repression as fascism, nazism and socialism; terms of actual areas and historical institutions and references to historical figures as Napoleon, Rousseau, Diderot, and others. At the end of the dissertation, we point out certain features that bring Il barone rampante variety of metaphysical magic realism, for example, the decision of the protagonist, Cosme living on trees, and other events. In addition, we discuss some allegorical meanings in relation to the historical context of the narrative which actually refers to the twentieth century, a period in which Calvin lived and about allegory of the intellectual Cosme from his change of view on the trees, which lead to reflection by need for enhancement of education and the maintenance of hope in human progress and technology to living in a more just and egalitarian society. Finally, we comment on symbolic elements such as tree space ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
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Fugere urbem et locus amoenus quaerere: uma análise ecocrítica de Marcovaldo ou As estações na cidade, de Italo Calvino / Fugere urbem et locus amoenus quaerere: an ecocritical analysis of Marcovaldo or The seasons in the city, by Italo CalvinoMarino, Mariana Cristina Pinto 23 February 2018 (has links)
A presente pesquisa propôs a análise de todos os vinte contos que compõem a obra Marcovaldo ou As estações na cidade (2015 [1963]), de Italo Calvino. O foco das análises voltou-se para o protagonista, Marcovaldo, um trabalhador pobre e em permanente estado de desconforto com as mudanças ocorridas no contexto social pós-guerra, especialmente na Itália, no período de seu milagre econômico, que foi impulsionado pelo fim de medidas protecionistas na economia (GINSBORG, 2003). Ao tentar romper com esse cenário, buscando a beleza genuína da natureza, Marcovaldo vê-se experienciando situações que sempre o levam ao descontentamento, intrinsecamente ligado a um novo tipo de relação humana e social, construída a partir não somente da consolidação das sociedades capitalistas modernas, como igualmente da imposição de um padrão único de comportamento à sociedade — a mutação antropológica, como proposto por Pier Paolo Pasolini (1978, 1997). A pesquisa debruçou-se sobre o olhar Ecocrítico (GARRARD, 2006), despertado pela obra em questão, que sugere, a partir da Literatura (e da incorporação de outras áreas como a Sociologia, a Biologia, a Antropologia), o estudo da natureza, suas relações com a mulher e o homem e o refinamento da percepção acerca de questões ecológicas frágeis, captadas com mais afinco a partir da década de 1960 (PIGA; MANSANO, 2015), apesar de as mudanças de perspectiva sobre a sensibilidade em relação à natureza estarem em constante modificação principalmente desde o Iluminismo (THOMAS, 2010 [1983]). A esta pesquisa foram igualmente incorporados pressupostos da Ecosofia (GUATTARI, 2006 [1989]), que sugere um ressignificar de procedimentos e discursos hegemônicos advindos do sistema sócio-político-econômico capitalista. Para tanto, fez-se necessário, conjuntamente, compreender problemáticas concernentes à conjuntura ambiental do século XX e seu impacto sobre as classes menos favorecidas economicamente (BOFF, 1995), assim como assimilar os desdobramentos referentes ao ecologismo dos pobres (via econômica baseada na justiça social), preconizado por Joan Martínez Alier (2014 [2007]), tendo em vista a classe social à qual Marcovaldo pertence. Alicerçada nos princípios descritos, a esta pesquisa coube, portanto, analisar as interações de Marcovaldo e sua família com a natureza e suas possibilidades, suas modificações e incorporação a um efervescente mercado consumidor, com vistas a refletir sobre a crise ecológica (das três ecologias, conforme Guattari) e assinalar hipóteses de superação para a mesma, por meio da apologia de um convívio menos predatório do ser humano relativamente aos outros seres que ao seu lado coabitam na Terra. / The present research proposed the analysis of all twenty short stories that compose the book Marcovaldo or the seasons in the city (2015 [1963]), by Italo Calvino. The analyses focused on the protagonist, Marcovaldo, an impoverished proletarian that finds himself in a continuous state of discomfort with the changes that occurred in the post-war social context, especially in Italy during the period of the economic miracle, which was driven by the end of protectionist measures in the economy (GINSBORG, 2003). In trying to break away from this scenario, seeking the genuine beauty of nature, Marcovaldo ends up experiencing situations that always lead him to a discontent that is inextricably linked to a new kind of human and social relationship, built not only on the consolidation of modern capitalist societies, but also on the imposition of a single standard of behavior on society – an anthropological mutation, as proposed by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1978, 1997). The research focused on the Ecocritical approach (GARRARD, 2006), awakened by the object, which suggests the study (incorporating references from areas such as Sociology, Biology and Anthropology to Literary Theory) of nature, its relationship with women and men, and the refining of perceptions about delicate ecological issues, captured more intensively since the 1960s (PIGA, MANSANO, 2015), although the changes in perspective on sensitivity to nature are constantly shifting, mainly since the Enlightenment (THOMAS, 2010 [1983]). This research also integrated the assumptions of Ecosophy (GUATTARI, 2006 [1989]), which suggests a re-signifying of hegemonic procedures and discourses derived from the capitalist socio-political-economic system. In order to do so, it was necessary, jointly, to understand issues related to the environmental context of the twentieth century and its impact on economically disadvantaged classes (BOFF, 1995), as well as to assimilate the consequences related to the environmentalism of the poor, advocated by Joan Martínez Alier (2014 [2007]), in view of the social class to which Marcovaldo belongs. Based on the principles described, this research therefore had to analyze the interactions of Marcovaldo and his family with nature and its possibilities, its modifications and assimilation into an effervescent consumer market, aiming to reflect on the ecological crisis (of the three ecologies, according to Guattari) and point out hypotheses of overcoming it, by means of the apology of a less predatory human conviviality in relation to the other beings that, with them, live on planet Earth.
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Processo de criação e jogos combinatórios: procedimentos comunicativos em Italo CalvinoBigareli, Maria Sílvia 17 December 2007 (has links)
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Previous issue date: 2007-12-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis has as its main objective to investigate Italo Calvino´s
creative mechanism analyzing its process, giving emphasis to the procedures called
combinatory games, presented as rules and ludic strategies which apply to other games
with the reader's interpretation, allowing through semiosis that the communicational
principles move in an unlimited and multiple way.
The research wanted to understand if those combinatory operations had a very big
influence in the author's Poetic Project and if those rules, used on purpose, were
fundamental to his concepts about multiplicity. Denominated by the author hyperromances,
the hypertextual procedures of these combinatory games are related to the new
creative process in the medias, because the attributes used (non-linearity, virtual
possibilities, mobility, multiplicity etc) find in the digital means´ features the appropriate
support model to the translation of these procedures. The main objects of the research's
corpus are: the author's reflexive texts about his own creative process and the books The
Castle of Crossed Destinies, Invisible Cities, If on a Winter s Night a Traveler (in which the
author metaliteralily talks about the reader's issue), and the short-story The Count of
Montecristo. As for Calvino´s communicative process, our focus is on the variants´ ways,
in the multiple paths possibilities. We were instigated by the rules of each combinatory
game, we wanted to go through the diagrammatic draw implicit in each text, observe his
choices, the selection among so many possible configurations and afterwards relate the
similarities and the generalizations of his project as a whole (understanding whole as
integrations and not completion.
The research, with an analytical character, is based on the Process Critics,
supported by the Peirce's Semiotics and it analyses the communicative phenomena
studying the process of the artistic creation. In addition, we also used theoretical
perspectives related to the studies about complexity, about the ludic and the potential
space and about the new medias. According to the nature of the research, the
methodology used includes mostly the bibliographical research and the use of objects
taken as references by the author while creating his games, such as tarot cards, and it
contemplates comparative analysis of the combinatory associations used and their
possible interpretations / Esta tese tem como principal objetivo investigar os mecanismos de
criação de Italo Calvino sob uma perspectiva processual, enfaticamente os procedimentos
denominados jogos combinatórios, apresentados como regras e estratégias lúdicas que
se ampliam em outros jogos com a interpretação do leitor, permitindo através da semiose
que os princípios comunicacionais se movimentem de forma ilimitada e multíplice.
A problemática da pesquisa buscava compreender se tais operações
combinatórias ocupavam predominante interesse no Projeto Poético do autor e se tais
regras, intencionalmente utilizadas, foram fundamentais para sua conceituação sobre
multiplicidade. Denominados pelo autor de hiper-romances, os procedimentos
hipertextuais desses jogos combinatórios se relacionam com os novos processos de
criação nas mídias, pois os atributos utilizados (não-linearidade, possibilidades virtuais,
mobilidade, multiplicidade etc) encontram nas características dos meios digitais o modelo
de suporte apropriado para a tradução desses procedimentos. Como principais objetos do
corpus da pesquisa estão os textos reflexivos do autor sobre seu próprio processo de
criação e as obras O Castelo dos Destinos Cruzados , Cidades Invisíveis e Se um
Viajante numa Noite de Inverno (em que o escritor metaliterariamente se pauta na
questão do leitor), além do conto O Conde de Monte Cristo . No âmbito do processo
comunicativo de Calvino, o nosso foco localiza-se nos caminhos das variantes, nas
possibilidades múltiplas de trajetórias. Instiga-nos entender as regras de cada jogo
combinatório criado, percorrer o desenho diagramático implícito em cada texto, observar
as escolhas, as seleções dentre tantas configurações potenciais, e relacionar
posteriormente as similaridades e generalizações do seu projeto como um todo
(entendendo todo como integração e não completude).
A pesquisa de caráter analítico é fundamentada na Crítica de Processo sustentada
pela Semiótica Peirceana e analisa os fenômenos comunicativos a partir de uma
perspectiva processual da criação artística. Em complemento, foram utilizadas
perspectivas teóricas atinentes ao âmbito de estudos sobre complexidade, sobre o lúdico
e o espaço potencial e sobre as novas mídias. Em consonância com a natureza da
pesquisa, a metodologia adotada inclui predominantemente a pesquisa bibliográfica e o
uso de objetos materiais tomados como referência pelo autor na estruturação de seus
jogos, tais como baralhos de tarô, e contempla análises comparativas das associações
combinatórias utilizadas e as possibilidades interpretativas das mesmas
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Imaginative appropriation : confronting otherness through the female body in the works of Cesare Pavese and Italo CalvinoAbell, Lynn Valerie 26 July 2011 (has links)
This report examines the ways in which Cesare Pavese and Italo Calvino use images of the foreign woman as other. Specifically, both authors inscribe foreign territories onto the bodies of their female characters in order to confront complex cultural
differences. Italy is the site of this gendered inscription in Pavese’s Il carcere, while various real and imagined foreign lands are made female in Calvino’s Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore and Le città invisibili. In Pavese’s novella, the satyr-like
Concia and the overly maternal Elena are embodiments of Southern and Northern Italy, respectively, and the failure of the protagonist to form a relationship with either woman represents his failure to assimilate into the mezzogiorno and his simultaneous rejection of
northern society. In Calvino’s two works, female characters and attributes are consciously used to embody various foreign countries so that the protagonists may grasp
the unknown, both physically and psychologically. By linking woman and terrain, Pavese and Calvino attempt to dominate distant lands, which are otherwise enigmatic and
incomprehensible, in the typical Orientalist fashion. / text
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So this is a man : renegotiating Italian masculinity through liminalityMabrey, Beatrice Giuseppina 26 July 2011 (has links)
In Italy, the period directly following World War II was marked by confusion and turbulence as the people struggled to reconstruct both the ideological and physical infrastructure of the nation. While much study has been dedicated to the evolution of femininity and the figure of the woman in this particular period, comparatively little has been written on the refashioning of masculinity in the texts produced in the period between 1940 and 1955. After the fall of the Fascist Regime, Italian masculinity undergoes a drastic transformation as the generation of young men born and raised under the tutelage of Mussolini’s reign attempt to separate themselves from the now-tainted codes of conduct governing male behavior. This report analyzes the renegotiation of Italian masculinity in G. Silvano Spinetti’s non-fictional account Difesa di una generazione (scritti e appunti), Italo Calvino’s Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, Beppe Fenoglio’s short story “Gli inizi del partigiano Raoul” and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Ragazzi di vita. These works, written and published in the postwar period, manipulate the
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marginality and privation experienced by the Italian population during the war and postwar period into a liminal state brimming with revolutionary potentiality. The protagonists of these texts (both fictional and non-fictional), isolated from the larger social context and deprived of individual identity, property and privilege, circumvent their polluted patriarchal lines in favor of an alternative ideological patriarchy. While Spinetti, Calvino and Fenoglio’s works advance their liminal narratives as a means of creating an emblematic Italian man capable of rejoining the generative discourse, Pasolini’s text renounces such a progressive view. In Ragazzi di vita, the only possibility for a masculine identity free of Fascism resides in a maintaining a perennial liminality. / text
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Abenteuerliche Elemente im modernen Roman : Italo Calvino, Ernst Augustin, Luigi Malerba, Kurt Vonnegut, Ror Wolf /Brocher, Sabine. January 1900 (has links)
Texte remanié de: Diss.--Literaturwissenschaft--Berlin, B.R.D., 1980. / Bibliogr. p. 216-222.
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Tradição e reinvenção: as convergências em I nostri antenati fr Italo Calvino e Primeiras estórias de João Guimarães RosaPrecioso, Adriana Lins [UNESP] 24 March 2009 (has links) (PDF)
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precioso_al_dr_sjrp.pdf: 1170151 bytes, checksum: a0427322ad39f71d3f8d868bf695fc86 (MD5) / Lo scopo di questo lavoro è analizzare il processo di reinvenzione della letteratura attraverso il confronto delle opere di Italo Calvino in I nostri antenati e quella di João Guimarães Rosa intitolata Primeiras estórias. Il fondamento della paragone sarà strutturata attraverso un dialogo intertestuale tra le opere. Il progetto di risignificazione delle opere visto come un insieme sommato alla visitazione del passato della tradizione letteraria guida l’analisi dei racconti e rappresenta le consonanze poetiche investigate in questa ricerca. L’apparente rottura con l’estetica degli anni ‘50 promuove il movimento convergente delle due opere e incita all’innovazione dei valori conferiti all’estetica chiamata postmoderna. / O objetivo deste trabalho é verificar o processo de renovação da literatura por meio do trabalho de Italo Calvino em I nostri antenati e João Guimarães Rosa em Primeiras estórias. A base da comparação será estruturada através de um diálogo intertextual entre as obras. O projeto de ressignificação das obras enquanto conjunto somado à visitação ao passado da tradição literária norteia a análise das narrativas, configurando as consonâncias poéticas investigadas nessa pesquisa. A aparente ruptura com a estética da década de 50 promove o movimento convergente das duas obras e instiga a inovação dos valores atribuídos à estética dita pós-moderna.
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Se um viajante numa noite de inverno = o romanesco e o ensaismo em Italo Calvino / If on a winter's night a traveler : essay and romance in Italo Calvino literary worksCorilow, Priscila Malfatti Vieira, 1983- 15 August 2018 (has links)
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Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Italo Calvino publica Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore em 1979, após um considerável período de reflexão sobre as discussões relacionadas ao romance como gênero no cenário cultural europeu, em especial a partir das teorizações de Roland Barthes e das experimentações do grupo OULIPO (Ouvroir de Littératture Potentielle). Nessa obra, o caráter metaliterário se destaca à primeira vista. Os mecanismos envolvidos no ato de narrar e seus agentes, leitores e autores, são ostensivamente encenados nesse "hiperromance", como o denominou seu escritor. Em função das peculiaridades de sua construção, essa obra tem sido submetida a análises que buscam identificar o funcionamento da interação autor-obra-receptor, a "função autor" e a "função leitor", estabelecer teorias da leitura através do romance ou estudá-lo a partir de metodologias semiológicas e pós-estruturalistas. Esses trabalhos têm consolidado uma imagem exclusiva de Italo Calvino como escritor pósmoderno por excelência, dedicado prioritariamente à reflexão sobre os processos lógicolingüísticos e estruturais envolvidos na fatura do texto literário. Partindo de premissas diversas, apoiadas em um modus operandi reconhecível no trabalho de críticos italianos como Asor Rosa, Alfonso Berardinelli, Mario Barenghi, Gian Carlo Ferretti entre outros, procuramos seguir de perto o entrelaçamento entre a ficção e a reflexão crítica na obra citada, através da leitura e análise dos ensaios, notas, entrevistas, artigos jornalísticos do próprio escritor bem como da crítica italiana que recepcionou sua obra. Buscamos assim produzir uma análise do romance que fosse capaz de revelar outra dimensão do escritor: a do intelectual que, através da mediação da literatura, reflete sobre a pertinência do gênero romance em momentos diversos da cultura e da sociedade, principalmente italianas / Abstract: Italo Calvino published Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore in 1979, after he had gone throw for a reflexive period, when he think about issues related with the romance as a literary genre that at the same time had concerned the cultural sphere of Europeans in the decades of fifty and sixty, when this matter was broadly discussed. Those discussions became even more frequent after Roland Barthes theorizing and the OULIPO (Ouvroir de Littératture Potentielle) experimentation's. In Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore the metaliterary approach is a strength feature since the first contact. The mechanisms involved in the narration act and its agents, the reader and the author, are both ostensibly staged in this hyperromance, like its author called it. According to peculiarities of its construction, this work has been subjected to analysis that seek to identify the operation of the author-work-receptor interaction, the "author function" and the "reader function", besides to establish readingtheories through the romance or to study it from the semiological and poststructuralist methodology. This works had consolidated an exclusive image of Italo Calvino as a postmodern writer par excellence, whom had devoted primarily to understand the logicallinguistic and structural processes, which are involved in the making of the literary text. We seek to follow closely the interlacing between the fiction and the critical thought in the mentioned work, based on various assumptions that are supported by a modus operandi recognizable in the works of italian critics like Asor Rosa, Alfonso Berardinelli, Mario Barenghi, Gian Carlo Ferretti and others. This search was also made through the reading and analyzing of Calvino's essays, notes, interviews and journalistic articles and the italian critic which welcomed his work. Therefore, we attempted a romance's analysis that was capable of revealing another dimension of the writer: an intellectual, who through the mediation of the literature, thought about the romance genre relevance in various moments of culture and society, mainly the italian ones / Mestrado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Mestre em Teoria e História Literária
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Through the Woods and Underground: Italo Calvino between Ecology and FolkloreNaponiello, Luca January 2023 (has links)
This dissertation offers an ecocritical reading of Italo Calvino’s Fiabe italiane, a collection of traditional oral tales published by Einaudi in 1956, and argues that the two-hundred folktales function as a repository of ecological motifs, showing the relationship between humans and the environment as not necessarily exploitative, but rather as a relationship of coexistence and entanglement. The dissertation shows that the critical language that Calvino uses, influenced by a long tradition of folklore studies, rests on two key metaphors to express belonging in a political and national community: rootedness and groundedness.
Through the reading of several tales, I show that the folktales themselves actually reveal a fabulist ecology concerned much more with entanglement and enmeshment with the natural landscape, and offer imaginative tools to recover, at the time of the Anthropocene, an enchanted view of the environment. In the first chapter, I argue that the morphology of the folktale that Calvino draws from the Russian formalist Vladimir Propp rests on a conception of the folktale as a plant that can be dissected with the same tools used by a botanist. I show how observations that Calvino makes about tales of metamorphosis of women into plants betray an investment in rootedness as a metaphor for belonging in a political and national community. Drawing from material ecocriticism, I argue that plants, rather than signposts for stasis and belonging, can be read as signs of mixture, coexistence, and symbiosis with the environment. I also argue that the frequent metamorphosis of female characters into plants points toward a trans-corporeal conception of subjectivity.
In the second chapter, I show how Calvino contradictorily engages with the legacy of the Brothers Grimm, for whom the forest stands as a metaphor of the lost unity of the German nation. Through a close reading of “Hansel and Gretel,” and Calvino’s rewriting of this tale, “Pulcino,” I show that forests, be they material or fictional, can also be read as environments that preserve an agrarian ecology of subsistence, populated by othered figures such as witches and ogres that depend on a non-exploitative relationship with the environment of the forest. This ecology is preserved in Calvino’s own Marcovaldo, a collection of modern urban fairy-tales that he authored in the same period. Ultimately, I conceive of trees as markers of deep time and connectors between human and geological history.
In the third chapter, I turn to the second metaphor identified by my project, groundedness. I briefly reconstruct the cultural milieu in which Calvino operated, and the development of postwar folklore studies after the publication of Antonio Gramsci’s Quaderni del carcere. Therefore, I examine the “Observations on Folklore,” showing how much of Gramsci’s theoretical language engages metaphorically with geology. Calvino himself is indebted to this idea of stratification. His folktales, especially “Cola Pesce,” then become a site where human history and geologic time intersect, and many stories function as repositories of folk knowledge about the telluric landscape of Southern Italy and about the porosity of humans and stones.
In the conclusion, I offer an overview of the material and I consider Calvino’s revisiting, in the 1970s, of his earlier folkloric work and how his thoughts on storytelling and belonging evolve in the course of two decade, arguing that they constitute a literary ecology.
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