Calvino’s Encounter with the Animal: Anthropomorphism, Cognition and Ethics in <i>Palomar</i>

Abstract

This article examines the importance of the portrayal of animals in Palomar, Italo Calvino’s last major work of fiction. The discussion moves from some observations on the representation of animals in fiction, to a reflection on the ethical issues which emerge once the “question of the animal” is confronted in its full complexity. It is argued that this is precisely the question that Calvino’s work addresses. Mr Palomar’s trajectory is marked at key junctures by encounters with animals. A close reading of the passages which describe these encounters reveals not only Palomar’s cognitive impasse, but also that at the root of this impasse lies a fundamental ethical failure which the protagonist is incapable to acknowledge. Palomar’s escapist strategies ultimately amount to a refusal of life itself and lead the author to liquidate his protagonist at the end of the narrative.