The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.

In a 1984 interview with Gregory L. Lucente concerning authorial intention and literary self-consciousness in relation to his two metanovels, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (1979) and Palomar (1983), Calvino remarks that “we [writers and readers] cannot do without interpreting, without asking our...

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Main Author: Chin, Ji Xiang.
Other Authors: Terence Richard Dawson
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/38727
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author Chin, Ji Xiang.
author2 Terence Richard Dawson
author_facet Terence Richard Dawson
Chin, Ji Xiang.
author_sort Chin, Ji Xiang.
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description In a 1984 interview with Gregory L. Lucente concerning authorial intention and literary self-consciousness in relation to his two metanovels, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (1979) and Palomar (1983), Calvino remarks that “we [writers and readers] cannot do without interpreting, without asking ourselves what something means, without embarking on an explanation” (Lucente 250). Defining reading as “directed creation”, Satre’s essay on “Why Write?” likewise reminds readers to “collaborate in the production” of writer’s works by intervening through interpretation and re-invention in deciphering a text (McLaughlin and Coleman 23, 24). In Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Calvino insists that the true value of Literature resides in the autonomous strength of the literary signs of images and language and that his works “originate in images and not in ideas” (Web; Ragusa 195). I will thereby study the imagery in Traveler and its implications on the trichotomous relationship between author, reader and character. With the imperative conditions of ambiguity and mutability present from the start of the novel, I will prove that Calvino’s textual self-reflexivity of the primary acts of reading and writing functions as an extensive representation of the volatility of the human experience, that which is constituted by one’s identity, consciousness and memory.
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spelling ntu-10356/387272019-12-10T13:27:33Z The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler. Chin, Ji Xiang. Terence Richard Dawson School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English In a 1984 interview with Gregory L. Lucente concerning authorial intention and literary self-consciousness in relation to his two metanovels, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler (1979) and Palomar (1983), Calvino remarks that “we [writers and readers] cannot do without interpreting, without asking ourselves what something means, without embarking on an explanation” (Lucente 250). Defining reading as “directed creation”, Satre’s essay on “Why Write?” likewise reminds readers to “collaborate in the production” of writer’s works by intervening through interpretation and re-invention in deciphering a text (McLaughlin and Coleman 23, 24). In Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Calvino insists that the true value of Literature resides in the autonomous strength of the literary signs of images and language and that his works “originate in images and not in ideas” (Web; Ragusa 195). I will thereby study the imagery in Traveler and its implications on the trichotomous relationship between author, reader and character. With the imperative conditions of ambiguity and mutability present from the start of the novel, I will prove that Calvino’s textual self-reflexivity of the primary acts of reading and writing functions as an extensive representation of the volatility of the human experience, that which is constituted by one’s identity, consciousness and memory. Bachelor of Arts 2010-05-18T01:25:46Z 2010-05-18T01:25:46Z 2010 2010 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/38727 en Nanyang Technological University 38 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English
Chin, Ji Xiang.
The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.
title The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.
title_full The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.
title_fullStr The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.
title_full_unstemmed The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.
title_short The implications of imagery in if on a winter's night a traveler.
title_sort implications of imagery in if on a winter s night a traveler
topic DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/38727
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