Borges and Calvino

Paper Summary:

This paper compares the novels of Calvino's 'Invisible Cities' to Borges' 'The Library of Babel.' It summarizes the stylistic and thematic similarities between the work of the great Argentine, Borges and the postmodern Italian, Calvino. The author illustrates how these writers seeks to emphasize the reader in their stories.

From the Paper:

"Striking parallels exist between the work of Italo Calvino and the great Argentine, Jorge Luis Borges. To begin with, both writers, as John Barth deftly summarizes, "wrote in a clear, straightforward, unmannered, but rigorously scrupulous style," (Barth, 2) or, as Mclaughlin put it: "the brevity that encompasses infinity" (Mclaughlin, 108). They preferred the laconic short take, and even Calvino's longer works are "modular and combinatory, built up from smaller, quicker units" (Barth, 2). They were prevailingly disinclined to social/psychological realism, favoring "myth and fable and science in Calvino's case, literary/philosophical history and "the contamination of reality by dream" in Borges' case" (Barth, 2). In keeping with typically postmodern tendencies, "both writers inclined toward the ironic elevation of popular narrative genres," as well as the "ironic recycling of stock images" (Barth, 2-3). Finally, Barth explains how both of these brilliant authors managed to combine in their fiction the values he calls "Algebra" and "Fire," referring to formal ingenuity and passion. Two works that exemplify all of these characteristics are Calvino's Invisible Cities and Borges' The Library of Babel. These two works provide a suitable platform for discussion of some of the most salient themes and formal characteristics associated with these renowned authors."

More papers on Borges and Calvino:

• Analytical Essay # 146575 : "Analysis of Postmodernist Texts"
• Analytical Essay # 139772 : "Jose Luis Borges"
• Comparison Essay # 87698 : "Works of Borges, Huraki Murakami, and Donald Barthelmew"

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