The Author in Criticism: Italo Calvino's Authorial Image in Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom explores the cultural and historic patterns and differences in the critical readings of Italian author Italo Calvino's works in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Italy. It considers the external factors that contribute to create recognizable patterns in the readings of Calvino's texts in different contexts. This volume therefore covers, most notably, matters of genre (science fiction, postmodernism), cultural perceptions and conventions, the (re)current image of the author in different media, academic schools, -curricula and -canons, biographical information (such as gender and background), and translation and the language in which the author speaks (or fails to speak) to us. It traces the influence of these aspects in the academic discourse on Calvino. The Author in Criticism also analyzes Calvino's various professional roles as writer, editor, essayist, journalist, private correspondent, and public, cosmopolitan intellectual, reappraising their often little acknowledged importance for academic criticism. An important underlying idea is that the preconceived image that every critic has of Calvino before even opening one of his books is often solidified and repeated even in the most refined and complex critical analyses. This volume purposefully foregrounds the textual and non-textual parts that are usually considered peripheral to the works of an author, such as book covers, blurbs, reviews, talks, interviews, etc. In this way, this book provides insight into the reception of Calvino's works in different countries. Moreover, it forms a broader reflection of and on important constants in the workings of literary criticism, and on the way academic discourses have developed in various cultural contexts over the last decades.
Elio Attilio Baldi is lecturer at the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: The Dead Author and the Paratextual Calvino Chapter Two: Calvino Within the Canon and Counter-Canon Chapter Three: Calvino from High to Low: The Case of Science Fiction Chapter Four: Calvino Crossing Boundaries: Trans[n/l]ational, Gendered and Posthuman Calvini Conclusion: Moving Beyond Calvino With Calvino: Will the Real Calvino Please Stand Up? Bibliography Appendix: Further Reading Index About the Author
In choosing to analyze Calvino's authorial image within Italian, American, and British contexts, Baldi's volume offers an extensive overview of the criticism on Calvino, both national and international, old and recent. . . . The book skillfully interrogates the general public's perception of the author, along with that of Calvino criticism. . . Baldi's contribution offers a compelling overview of the various forces and elements surrounding and informing the writer's written production, from paratext to post-text, from national criticism to international criticism, from authorial intervention to more trendy criticism. It also sheds light on the writer's "celebrity" side (5), that is to say, how Calvino's popularity gained momentum due, in large part, to his ability to shape his own image. * Annali D'Italianistica *
