Calvino for the Next Millennium: New Perspectives

(Panel / In-Person)


Special Session
Italian / Languages and Linguistics

Luca Naponiello (Columbia University in the City of New York)
ln23@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

2023 marks one-hundred years since Italo Calvino’s birth in 1923. Even before his death in 1985, he was considered a classic of 20th century literature; his career spans various crucial historical moments, from the Resistance to the Years of Lead, and encompasses various genres and modes of writing, from Neorealism to postmodernism.

This panel joins in this centennial investigation and asks panelists to interrogate again the role of Italo Calvino in contemporary literature and culture; his role in Italian and World Literature; and his intellectual and political legacy. Panelists may also reflect on the new futures that Calvino’s books make imaginable. We welcome contributions that shed new light on Calvino’s work and use innovative methodologies, including, but not limited to, the role and representation of race, gender, and disability in his oeuvre; ecocriticism, artificial intelligence, combinatorial poetics, and spatial and urban studies.

2023 marks one-hundred years since Italo Calvino’s birth in 1923. Even before his death in 1985, he was considered a classic of 20th century literature; his career spans various crucial historical moments, from the Resistance to the Years of Lead, and encompasses various genres and modes of writing, from Neorealism to postmodernism.

This panel joins in this centennial investigation and asks panelists to interrogate again the role of Italo Calvino in contemporary literature and culture; his role in Italian and World Literature; and his intellectual and political legacy. Panelists may also reflect on the new futures that Calvino’s books make imaginable. We welcome contributions that shed new light on Calvino’s work and use innovative methodologies, including, but not limited to, the role and representation of race, gender, and disability in his oeuvre; ecocriticism, artificial intelligence, combinatorial poetics, and spatial and urban studies.