Calvino’s Ecological Clairvoyance: A Question of Communication
@ Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago
500 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1450, Chicago, IL 60611
Opening Thursday, October 19th, from 6PM - 7PM
Throughout his vast oeuvre, Italo Calvino depicts both a natural world fundamentally changed by human action and the struggle of human protagonists to accept that change. While decrying industrial pollution, unregulated building and increasing reliance on toxic substances, he simultaneously celebrates the persistent agency and adaptability of nonhuman nature and models the importance of acknowledging environmental change — of clear communication. This is especially true in his writing from the 1950s and 1960s, the period of Italy’s post-war industrial expansion and economic boom. In texts like La formica argentina (1952), La nuvola di smog (1958) and Marcovaldo ovvero Le stagioni in città (1963), the author describes the full emergence of our current geological era now known as the Anthropocene, while anticipating questions still very relevant today regarding industrial emissions, nonhuman-human relations, and narrative communication. Beginning with a reading of these texts, and focusing in particular on La nuvola di smog, the talk will consider what Monica Seger calls Calvino’s ecological clairvoyance in the context of more recent Italian stories of real-life environmental change, disaster and resilience.
The presentation will be moderated by Caterina Mongiat Farina, Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Modern Languages, Italian Program, at DePaul University.
Free and open to the public. Registration is not required. Doors open at 5:30pm CT and seats are assigned on a first-come-first-served basis, until capacity is reached.
The program is part of “Italo Calvino’s Universe” a lecture series on literature, ecology, arts and ethics.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italo Calvino (1923-1985), the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, in collaboration with the Department of Modern Languages, Italian Program, at DePaul University, presents a series of lectures on exemplary and less known themes, from the vast body of work of the Italian author, between fantastic elements and historical issues.
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Tags: Calvino, Calvino’s Ecological Clairvoyance: A Question of Communication, Chicago, Italian Cultural Institute, Monica Seger, Neawr North Side
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