Alla Ricerca Del Midollo Del Leone e L'ariosto Geometrico Di Calvino

Abstract

Calvino was one of Ariosto's greatest admirers and recognized the Orlando furioso as a creative stimulus and a constant source of inspiration for his own work. Calvino's interest in this literary precursor is exemplified by his essays on the chivalric epic, the large number of references to Ariosto in his critical production, his commentary on the Orlando furioso and two of his works of narrative fiction, Il cavaliere inesistente and Il castello dei destini incrociati. These two works are an attempt to give practical form to the observations he makes in his critical essays, representing as they do two different phases in Calvino's work. In the 50s, the first phase concerns the search for the 'midollo del leone', for examples, that is, of strength and vital energy. In the second phase of his writing, during the 60s and 70s, structuralism and semiotics heavily influenced Calvino. Analysis of this profound connection between Calvino and Ariosto focuses on the above two works of fiction through the critical perspective if the essays and the commentary on the Orlando furioso.