SPECIAL TOPIC: Italo Calvino between the modern and the postmodern

In addition to taking an exam on 20th century literature in August, I also take something called a "Special Topic" reading list.  Formed in conjunction with my advisor, this list is supposed to theoretically help me prepare for writing a dissertation. Sometimes the exam list can go on to be a chapter or part of a chapter of the dissertation.  

When I was thinking about what would be the most beneficial way to approach the exam, I decided that the best thing to do would be to kill as many birds as possible with the fewest number of stones.  One of my courses this semester, which I love, is a seminar on Italo Calvino, one of the more internationally famous Italian writers.  So, of course, he seemed like a good choice for a special topic.  

Here is my reading list:

Primary books

Calvino, Italo. Sentiero dei nidi di ragno (1946) - Path to the spider's nest

Calvino, Italo. Ultimo viene il corvo (1949) - 

Calvino, Italo. Il visconte dimezzato (1951) - The cloven viscount

Calvino, Italo. La formica argentina (1952) - The argentine ant

Calvino, Italo. Il barone rampante (1957) - The baron in the trees

Calvino, Italo. La speculazione edilizia (1957) - A plunge into real estate

Calvino, Italo. La nuvola di smog (1958) - Smog

Calvino, Italo. Il cavaliere inesistente (1959) - The nonexistent knight

Calvino, Italo. La giornata di uno scrutatore (1963) - The watcher

Calvino, Italo. Castello dei destini incrociati (1973) - Castle of crossed destinies

Calvino, Italo. Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979) - If on winter's night a traveler...

On its own, this list actually is really doable. I've read most of the books, and I feel like I could definitely use some of them in a dissertation.  But, wait for it. The secondary list is the theory, criticism and otherwise much more dense and difficult section.  

Secondary sources

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations

Bové, Paul A. Early postmodernism: Foundational essays

Calinescu, Matei. Five faces of modernity: modernism, avant-garde, decadence, kitsch, postmodernism

Cannon, Joann. Postmodern italian fiction

Hutcheon, Linda. selection from Poetics of the Postmodern

Jameson, Frederic. Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism

Luperini, Romano.  selections from Allegoria del Moderno

Markey, Constance. "Calvino and the existential dilemma"

Markey, Constance. Calvino: a journey toward the postmodern

McHale, Brian. Postmodernist fiction

Pacifici, Sergio. selection from From Verismo to Existentialism: essays on the modern italian novel

Robbe-Gillet, Alain. For a new novel--essays on fiction

Todorov, Tzvetan. The fantastic: a structural approach to literary genre

Vattimo, Gianni. The end of modernity: nihilism and hermenetics in postmodern culture

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. selection from Philosophical investigations

Honestly, I was relieved that the list was finally approved and has been filed away into my personal database of things that I need to learn between now and August. It felt really good to go in with a list that I felt would be useful and was also not too daunting and hear "You know, you have too much criticism. But I'm very pleased with this list." What a feeling!