Starting in 1959, Italo Calvino’s relationship with the United States is enhanced with implications: his intense youthful passion for Hollywood movies, his interest in American writers, and his scrutiny of American politics merged with an “immediate emotional reaction” to American society and its big cities. Many texts emerged from his engagement with “the God’s Country”: in addition to the well-known American lectures and a few unsystematic writings, Calvino wrote some American diaries, a variety of hybrid texts that would be included in the memoir-reportage withdrawn at the draft stage ("Un ottimista in America"). This paper traces the first dialogues with America and aims to shed light on a lesser-known episode in Calvino’s bibliography: his commentary for Luigi Vanzi’s documentary "America" (1966), a script that draws on the work “disvoluted” and presents itself as a description of pictures for “the other world that was the world”.
A partire dal 1959 il rapporto di Italo Calvino con gli Stati Uniti si arricchisce di nuove implicazioni: l’intensa passione giovanile per i film hollywoodiani, l’attenzione verso gli autori americani e l’osservazione della politica oltreoceano si combinano con una “immediata reazione emotiva” di fronte alla società statunitense e alle sue grandi città. Sono molti i testi nati nel quadro del dialogo con “il Paese di Dio”: oltre alle notissime conferenze americane e ad alcuni interventi non sistematici, Calvino ha scritto una serie di diari e dei testi ibridi che sarebbero confluiti in "Un ottimista in America", il memoriale-reportage ritirato in fase di bozze. L’intervento ricostruisce i primi dialoghi con l’America e si sofferma su un episodio meno noto della bibliografia calviniana: il commento parlato al documentario "America paese di Dio" (Luigi Vanzi 1966), un testo che prende le mosse dall’opera “disvoluta” e che si presenta come una descrizione di immagini per “quell’altro mondo che era il mondo”.
Scritti in viaggio: dal “Diario americano” al reportage cinematografico di Italo Calvino / Ciancamerla, Giulio. - In: ANUARI DE FILOLOGIA. LITERATURES CONTEMPORÀNIES. - ISSN 2014-1416. - 14(2024), pp. 105-134. [10.1344/AFLC2024.14.8]
Scritti in viaggio: dal “Diario americano” al reportage cinematografico di Italo Calvino
Ciancamerla, Giulio
2024
Abstract
Starting in 1959, Italo Calvino’s relationship with the United States is enhanced with implications: his intense youthful passion for Hollywood movies, his interest in American writers, and his scrutiny of American politics merged with an “immediate emotional reaction” to American society and its big cities. Many texts emerged from his engagement with “the God’s Country”: in addition to the well-known American lectures and a few unsystematic writings, Calvino wrote some American diaries, a variety of hybrid texts that would be included in the memoir-reportage withdrawn at the draft stage ("Un ottimista in America"). This paper traces the first dialogues with America and aims to shed light on a lesser-known episode in Calvino’s bibliography: his commentary for Luigi Vanzi’s documentary "America" (1966), a script that draws on the work “disvoluted” and presents itself as a description of pictures for “the other world that was the world”.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
