Calvino furioso: a experiência épica de Italo Calvino

Abstract

This thesis presents a study on the assimilation of the epic in Italo Calvino's fiction and essay. Thus, the Modern Epic is investigated in the following fictional works: A trilha dos ninhos de aranha (2004), Por último vem o corvo (2023a), Entrada na guerra (2023b) and A especulação imobiliária (2011), in which the fabulation of the epos of the Second World War and the Italian post-war period is identified; O cavaleiro inexistente (2014) and O castelo dos destinos cruzados (1991), in which the literary processes of revitalization and resizing of the Carolingian epic material are identified from the Renaissance epopee Orlando furioso (2011, 2023), by Ludovico Ariosto and, thus, are characterized as an epic novel of fantastic transfiguration and a combinatorial epic novel; finally, it points to the same literary processes and characterizes the work Orlando furioso de Ludovico Ariosto contado por Italo Calvino (2020) as a combinatorial epic essay. To this end, this thesis presents a theoretical foundation of Epic Studies (Silva; Ramalho, 2022; Highet, 2015; Lima, 2002; Staiger, 1997, Genette, 1987; Bowra, 1952); the relations between texts (Samoyault, 2008; Jauss, 1994; Hutcheon, 1993, 1991; Genette, 1982; Compagnon, 1979) and essayistic studyies (Miranda, 2021; Lukács, 2018; Bense, 2018; Aira, 2018; Starobinski; 2018; Barrento, 2010; Adorno, 2003); a review of the literature on the epic in the work of Italo Calvino (among others Petersen, 1991; Klein, 2008, 2013; Toledo, 2017; Bedin, 2019; Rezzonico, 2022), and applies a thematic approach methodology to both the corpus and critical and theoretical studies. In the horizon of his literary experience, Calvino shows the sensitivity and thought that mix world history and literature with fable and thus launches an epic understanding of contemporary reality and literature.