Italo Calvino and the compass of literature /

Summary: Publisher Summary 1 Criticism of the well known Italian writer, especially in English, is dominated by postmodern approaches, both in the selection of works examined and in the elements of them highlighted, says Bolongaro (Italian studies, McGill U.). He allows as how that might be all well and good, but he wants to point out how Calvino's fictional and critical work reveal a lifelong commitment to writing as intervention into a particular social and historical situation, and to taking an ethical and political stance. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)   Publisher Summary 2 Looking at five of Italo Calvino's often neglected early novels: The Young People of Po, The Cloven Viscount,The Baron in the Trees, The Non-Existent Knight, and The Watcher, Eugenio Bolongaro argues that these works, written between 1948 and 1963, contain a sustained meditation on the role of the intellectual and on the irreducible ethical and political dimension of literature. This meditation provides an insight into a crucial moment in Calvino's development as a writer, and allows Bolongaro to lay the groundwork for a more 'political' reading of Calvino's later work.Italo Calvino and the Compass of Literaturefirmly situates Calvino within his historical context 鈥?the cultural revival of post-World War II Italy 鈥?by relating these early novels to Calvino's political and critical writings which played an important role in the cultural debates of the time. This approach provides a key to understanding Calvino's work in a new light, ably demonstrating that Calvino's full literary significance cannot be understood in isolation from the politics and cultural movements of the period. One of the few book-length English-language works on Calvino's early writings, Italo Calvino and the Compass of Literaturwill prove to be an indispensable tool to Italianists and literary studies scholars.