ITALO CALVINO BIO SERIAL

This objective proves to be counterproductive, however, because Bolongaro is then forced to speak about the unsuccessful features of Calvino's work, beginning with the autobiographical protagonist: 'Nino's failure as a character mirrors directly Calvino's failure as a writer and intellectual' 'this dream of cohesion, brotherhood, and clarity failed miserably in I giovani.' It is difficult to say why the author did not choose instead to examine The Path to the Spiders' Nests as the foundation of Calvino's work after all, Calvino refused to publish I giovani in book form because he considered it 'a rather muddled neo-realist grotesque novel' (Weiss). Never diverging from his position on Calvino's life-long commitment to the ethical function of literature, Bolongaro examines how the experience of writing I giovani remains in the back of Calvino's mind. In pursuing his objective to 'reflect the foundation of the intellectual project that endures throughout Calvino's career' he discusses the relationships between Vittorini and Calvino and the ideological goals of journals such as Politecnico, Contemporaneo, Officina, and MenabГІ, in their attempt to 'shake the Italian intelligentsia out of its provincialism.' As other critics have done, Bolongaro focuses on Calvino's essays ('The Lion's Marrow,' 'The Sea of Objectivity,' and 'The Challenge of the Labyrinth') in which the author debates ideological and literary currents vis-Г -vis the Gramscian definition of an 'organic intellectual.' Within his definition of neo-realism as a 'poetic' (however, neo-realism, as Calvino has also stated, was mainly a 'literary current' committed to narrate key socio-political issues of the time: the Resistance, Fascism, the war, the South, etc), Bolongaro develops an excellent discussion on political, sociological, and aesthetic elements of neo-realism and on intellectuals in postwar Italy. But it certainly is not in Italy, where critics, especially those of Gramscian and left-wing formation, have delved at great length into Calvino's works associated with engagement and neo-realist narrative practices from the days of The Path to the Spiders' Nests to The Watcher.Д«olongaro does an outstanding job in the introduction and first chapter in providing his readers with a clear and documented socio-historical background within which Calvino writes his earlier works. Although studies like those of Lucia Re, Martin McLaughlin, and Beno Weiss prove the contrary, among English critics this may be partly true. Bolongaro claims that, whereas works dating from Cosmicomics to Palomar have drawn plenty of attention, the earlier ones have not.

ITALO CALVINO BIO SERIAL

Calvino's fame has grown after his death (1985), as readers continue to recognize the author's talent as a fantastic fabulator and his faith in literature, brilliantly illustrated in Six Memos for the Next Millennium.Д®ugenio Bolongaro's study 'stays away' from what he feels is the familiar beaten track of Calvino's recent criticism as he proposes instead to examine the author's earlier works from 1947 to 1963: I giovani del Po (written in 1950-51 and published in serial form in the journal Officina, 1957-58), the trilogy The Cloven Viscount, The Baron in the Trees, and The Non-Existent Knight (published between 19), and The Watcher (1963). Soon after, in the English-speaking world, numerous essays began to appear which examined mainly his so-called postmodern works like Cosmicomics, Invisible Cities, The Castle of Crossed Destinies, and If on a Winter Night a Traveler. His novels, which have been translated in twenty-six countries and have sold millions of copies, are Treno di panna (Creamtrain), Uccelli da gabbia e da voliera, Macno, Yucatan, Due di due (Two Out of Two), Tecniche di seduzione (Techniques of seduction), Arcodamore, Uto, Di noi tre, Nel momento, Pura vita, I veri nomi, Giro di vento, Mare delle veritГ (Sea of Truth), Durante, Leielui (Sheandhe), Villa Metaphora, Cuore primitivo, L'imperfetta meraviglia (Imperfect Delight), Una di Luna and Il teatro dei sogni.In the late 1960s, writer-critics, including Barth, Vidal, Updike, and Rushdie, praised Calvino as one of the most original, challenging, and entertaining writers of our times. He recorded two cds of his music, Alcuni nomi and Dentro Giro di vento. He co-wrote with Ludovico Einaudi the ballets Time Out and Salgari. He was assistant director to Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, and directed the documentary Le facce di Fellini (Fellini's Faces) and the feature film Treno di panna. His first published novel, Treno di panna (Creamtrain) came out in 1981, with an introduction by Italo Calvino. He has lived in the USA and Australia, devoting himself to music and photography. Andrea De Carlo was born in Milan, Italy, where he grew up.

Italo calvino bio