Calvino’s posthuman journey : a posthuman and ecocritical analysis of three works by Italo Calvino

This dissertation offers a posthuman and ecocritical analysis of three works – Marcovaldo, Palomar, and Le cosmicomiche by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It explores the potential of moving beyond anthropocentricism and into a hybrid space in which human and nonhuman life coexist and collaborate. The urban center is a significant place of this convergence. Underlying these novels is Calvino’s prescient concern for global industrialization, consumerism, and climate change. Posthumanism and ecocriticism overlap in their desire to combat these ongoing environmental crises onset by rapid human development in the 20th century. The omnipresence of animals in these stories also highlight Calvino’s resistance to see humans as an exceptional planetary species. By giving voice, thoughts, and agency to these animals, Calvino’s novels shift the hierarchy into a decentered space in which humans are not considered special or unique. Posthumanism reinforces this position.