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The Rappresentation of War in Italo Calvino's works
ŠIMKOVÁ, Marie
The objective of this bachelor thesis is to analyze the Italian writer Italo Calvino's works dealing with World War II and his involvement in the antifascist resistance, in the light of the fact that his personal experience and views on historical events of that time run through his works. The chosen books are analyzed according to the chronology of events, not the publication years. The initial part of the study introduces the author in relation to his family background, as it had an impact on his education, which is very often reflected in his works. In the light of this fact, the first book mentioned is La strada di San Giovanni, which explains how Calvino's family was such a source of inspiration for him, and which he dedicated to his family. Along with it, is also mentioned the short story Il ricordo di una battaglia, one of the stories included in the book, in which the author describes the only real battle he actively took part in, together with the real events, with a gap of thirteen years. The first book to read is L'entrata in guerra where the author depicts the first days of the entry of Italy into Secondo World War. He describes his own memories though he never uses his name real name. The second book analyzed is Ultimo viene il corvo. It is a storybook made of many short length stories and various themes, and therefore only those regarding war are analyzed. The common trait of these stories is the frequent use of allegory which reduces the heavy atmosphere of the historical events of that period and at the same time enables the reader to get a deeper understanding of the text, depending on their knowledge of the historical background. The last book mentioned is Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno which, thanks to the author's choice of narrator, is extraordinary: it is a nine-year-old boy Pin, who describes his adventures and the general atmosphere of the period through a naive and pure point of view, even though the topics handled are war and the oppression felt by people who decided to fight against the Nazi regime. A huge contrast comes out of the whole story as Pin is going through a time of self-discovery, and also growing up without a family, and at the same time he stays on the borderline between two worlds: he cannot understand the children of his age, and yet he is still to young to fully comprehend the world of adults. A way out of this situation seems to be the path where spiders have their nests and which consequently leads him to the person that he is trying to find the whole time. In this book, the author's inclination towards a fairy tale style is evident and will be developed further in his later works. In order to explain the allegorical links, the meaning of the works and the reasons that led Calvino to write these books, the historical background of that period, and also the author's active involvement, notes on the resistance movement and the author's active participation in it are added throughout the whole work.
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