Provocarea labirintului: eseuri

by Italo Calvino, Smaranda Bratu Elian (translator), Oana Boșca‑Mălin (translator)

„Antologia de față ordonează cronologic perspectivele mereu schimbătoare asupra lumii, sesizând principalele lor focare și intrând în miezul lucrurilor, în căutarea acelui strat profund unde scrierea lui Calvino devine una singură: nu cea a eseistului, nici cea a prozatorului, ci aceea a unui scriitor italian care în proza eseurilor sale este intrinsec scriitor, iar în prozele sale literare e intrinsec eseist. De fapt, cred că există un singur Calvino, poet al lumii, un clasic al literaturii și cugetării, care soarbe din clasicii săi cu o ironică perplexitate. Privind în oglinda literaturii la clasicii săi, Calvino s-a căutat întotdeauna pe sine, a căutat care este locul lui printre ei, a purtat cu ei un dialog neîntrerupt cu privire la rațiunile profunde ale posibilităților de a cunoaște, de a citi, de a traduce și a povesti lumea, împletind morala acțiunii, a făptuirii istorice – măduva leului – cu potențialitățile literaturii.“ — LAURA DI NICOLA

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Italo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. He was a journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (1979).

His style is not easy to classify; much of his writing has an air reminiscent to that of fantastical fairy tales (Our Ancestors, Cosmicomics), although sometimes his writing is more "realistic" and in the scenic mode of observation (Difficult Loves, for example). Some of his writing has been called postmodern, reflecting on literature and the act of reading, while some has been labeled magical realist, others fables, others simply "modern". He wrote: "My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language."

Reviews

[MihaElla · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting but short collection of essays on various topics touching some classic writers, literature, society, environment. Calvino did know what he didn’t like. For example, he didn’t like the mean or evil side of some philosophies that preach some cheap sarcasm. He had not a theory, but a thirst for things as simple and as humble as human, and as laughable as daily stuff for which we pray to God or any other mighty power, according to personal taste or attitude. Possibly he had no particular plan of reform through his shared ideas and reflections, but he was a man who master them well, whilst he attacked the compromise and the arrogance of the ignorant…