Main Article Content
Se una notte d’inverno di italo Calvino: La letteratura tra gioco combinatorio e tensione conoscitiva
Abstract
All of Calvino’s narrative subscribes to the principle of a combinatory art which
attempts to reduce the chaotic complexity of reality to the combination of a few fundamental structures. This does not mean, however, that his stories are
predictable, because, after having exorcised the sense of agoraphobia which
comes from life’s entropy, Calvino is overcome by its opposite syndrome,
claustrophobia, which he conquers by leaving the endings of his texts open and suspended. In this context, his idea of literature is not that of a gratuitous game but of a continuous search for knowledge at an intellectually challenging level. This is the thesis explored in this article, through an analysis of Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore, a text which is not simply conditioned by the formalism of semiotic research.
attempts to reduce the chaotic complexity of reality to the combination of a few fundamental structures. This does not mean, however, that his stories are
predictable, because, after having exorcised the sense of agoraphobia which
comes from life’s entropy, Calvino is overcome by its opposite syndrome,
claustrophobia, which he conquers by leaving the endings of his texts open and suspended. In this context, his idea of literature is not that of a gratuitous game but of a continuous search for knowledge at an intellectually challenging level. This is the thesis explored in this article, through an analysis of Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore, a text which is not simply conditioned by the formalism of semiotic research.
