CALVINO, Italo

(1923-1985)

   Italian novelist, born in Cuba, active since the end of WWII, at first with realist works but soon with GOTHIC, surrealist romances of great vigour and impact like Il Visconte dimezzato (1952) and Il Cavaliere inesistente (1959)-trans together by A. Colquhoun as The Non-Existent Knight and The Cloven Viscount 1962 UK) - and Il Barone rampante (1957; trans A. Colquhoun as Baron in the Trees 1959 UK), three thematically linked fables later assembled as I nostri antenati (omni 1960; in the Colquhoun trans as Our Ancestors 1980 US). A more recent venture in the same idiom is Il Castello dei Destini incrociati (coll of linked stories 1973; trans William Weaver as The Castle of Crossed Destinies 1977 US). Beneath the FABULATION-drenched protocols of these stories - the nonexistent knight, for instance, being an empty suit of armour with a "passion" for the formalities and ceremonies that keeps it "alive"- lies a concern for fundamental problems of being. IC's works closest to sf are the two linked volumes Le Cosmicomiche (coll of linked stories 1965; trans William Weaver as COSMICOMICS 1968 US) and Ti con zero (coll of linked stories 1967; trans William Weaver as t zero 1969 US; vt Time and the Hunter 1970 UK); both volumes feature and are told by the presence called Qfwfq, who is the same age as the Universe. The various stories express in emblematic form speculations and fables about the nature of life, EVOLUTION, reality and so forth; they are witty, moving and, after their strange fashion, effectively didactic. One of the stories in The Watcher and Other Stories (1952-63; coll trans William Weaver 1971 US), "Smog" (1958), a remarkable POLLUTION tale, is sf. Le citta invisibili (1972; trans William Weaver as Invisible Cities 1974 US) frames fragmented versions of Marco Polo's narrative of his voyages with a remarkable set of meditations ostensibly triggered by the distant, surrealistic CITIES he visits. Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979; trans William Weaver as If on a Winter's Night a Traveler 1981 US) stunningly transfigures the conventions and momentums of narrative into a Bunuelesque labyrinth. IC's powers of invention were formally ingenious; at the same time he was an extremely lucid writer. His use of sf subjects and their intermixing with a whole array of contemporary literary devices made him a figure of considerable interest for the future of the genre.

   JC

   Marcovaldo ovvera le stagioni in citta (1976; trans William Weaver as Marcovaldo; or the Seasons in the City1983 US); Gli, amori difficili (coll 1984; trans William Weaver and others as Difficult Loves 1984 US); Sotto il sole giaguaro (coll 1986; trans William Weaver as Under the Jaguar Sun 1988 US).

   See also: COSMOLOGY; ITALY; ORIGIN OF MAN; OULIPO.