Celebrating 100 Years of Italo Calvino: a 20th Century Intellectual

Illustrazione digitale di Maria René Menacho, 2023, studentessa del Liceo artistico Volta di Pavia. Tecnica mista

Exactly a century ago, on October 15, 1923, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century was born, destined to give us some of the richest and most complex works of 20th-century Italian literature. Italo Calvino was able to reconcile different themes and genres, blending forms and stylistic choices in a frantic attempt to give a face to the chaos of reality, ready to amaze us even today with their disarming relevance.

Why Calvino is a Classic

He embodied the intellectual of the 20th century, being enlightened (believing in the primacy of reason), a bibliophile (believing in the liberating function of books), and an experimenter. He was a writer of ideas, heir to a tradition dating back to Lucretius, Galilei, and Leopardi. He considered literature as a tool for decoding and interpreting the world.

The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, 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 inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space. ― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Calvinian Style

Calvino continuously oscillates between fairy tales and reality, blending an awareness of contemporary events with fantastic projections towards earlier or later eras. He doesn't escape from reality but offers an original way to understand and interpret the present through fantasy. In his works, Calvino aims to symbolically tell the story of humanity's struggle with nature, destiny, and knowledge. He rejects ideological abstraction and formal virtuosity as ends in themselves, preferring a linear, simplified narrative expressed through rapid and precise language. Linearity is accompanied by lightness, theorized in his "American lessons" alongside Speed, Accuracy, Visibility, and Multiplicity. Lightness is the ability to approach any topic with irony and disenchantment. Calvino belongs to the category of rational writers, adept at using writing techniques, sometimes appearing cold and detached. His approach to storytelling is anchored to a logical-geometric process that stems from the Enlightenment tradition. For Calvino, writing essentially means bringing order to disorder and challenging the labyrinth of reality's complexity.

Calvino con moglie e figlia durante la mostra del cinema di Venezia del 1981

Critic and Journalist

Passionate about cinema, Italo Calvino served as a film critic for Il Giornale di Genova. He wrote "Autobiography of a Spectator" (1974) as a preface to a book on Federico Fellini, and in 1981, he presided over the jury of the XXXVIII Venice Film Festival. He also collaborated with newspapers such as Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, as well as publications within the Communist area like L'Unità, Rinascita, Cultura e realtà, Il Politecnico. Within the publishing house Einaudi, Calvino held various positions, including roles in sales, the press and advertising office, editor, selector of works to be published, director, and editorial consultant. At Einaudi, he crossed paths with great intellectuals such as Elio Vittorini, Natalia Ginzburg, Norberto Bobbio, and Cesare Pavese. The latter was a fundamental cultural and human guide for him, and he deeply regretted not sensing Pavese's emotional struggles that led to his suicide in 1950.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AIRONE ANNO XLII N°510 - OTTOBRE 2023

SITOGRAPHY

MONDADORI EDUCATION

PEARSON, IL NOVECENTO, IL TERZO PERIODO (1944-1978)

Today’s blogger

My name is Giulia Cinti, and I am a 15-year-old student living in Subiaco. I am currently enrolled in the third year of the liceo classico. Besides my passion for ancient languages, I also enjoy studying modern European languages. In the future, I aspire to pursue a career in law and specialize in international law. I have a deep appreciation for art and culture, often visiting exhibitions, museums, and other places of cultural interest in my free time. Besides all that, I love dedicating my time to volunteer work at the canteen of the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome.