The Poetics of Reading in Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Abstract

Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler is a writer’s novel to write and a reader’s challenge to read. And that challenge begins even before one actually starts to read the novel as a novel in the manner in which most novels are read. The reader is presented with a “table of contents” which, on the face of it, appears fairly innocuous; however, in fact, it isn’t just a table of contents, but the actual beginning of the novel. The essay focuses on the relationship between how this particular novel is written and how the composition of the novel affects its reading thus challenging the reader to dismiss any preconceived notions of what constitutes a “novel” and to approach the text on its own terms.