Calvino’s “Crisis of Reason” Revisited

Italo Calvino’s fiction has often been read as a literary critique of modern reason. His nonfiction has sometimes been understood as enthusiastic about the cognitive capacity of science. Both readings follow the author’s self-conceptualization as a writer deeply interested in epistemological issues. A rereading of some of his essayistic and journalistic texts as well as the novel Invisible Cities shows that this epistemological pondering to some extent cloaks ethical concerns and Calvino’s increasingly pessimistic conception of the leeway of human freedom in the social sphere.