The Uses Of Literature

In these widely praised essays, Calvino reflects on literature as process, the great narrative game in the course of which writer and reader are challenged to understand the world. Calvino himself made the selection of pieces to be included in this volume. Translated by Patrick Creagh. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

In this essential collection, one of the 20th century’s finest minds asks the ultimate questions about the stories we tell:

• Cybernetics and Literature: Calvino explores the future of storytelling in an age of electronic brains, questioning if a “literature machine” could ever replace the author.
• The Act of Reading: A brilliant defense of classic literature, revealing why rereading the great books is a unique voyage of discovery that defines who we are.
• Structuralism and Myth: An analysis of narrative as a combinatorial game, dissecting the raw elements of myth and fable from the first tribal storyteller to modern fiction.
• Philosophy and Literature: A fascinating look at the age-old battle between writers and philosophers, and how literature challenges—and is challenged by—the world of ideas.