Reading Response Prompts
 

These prompts are meant to get you thinking about what you have read, and to help focus your thoughts for your reading responses. You can respond to any one of them, or, if you have another idea you would rather explore, you are free to write about that instead. Do not, however, attempt to answer multiple prompts for any assignment. If you choose to pursue an idea of your own or are not writing a response that day, you should still spend at least a few minutes thinking about each of the prompts in preparation for class. For more information, review the listserv assignment.
 

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities 1-5 (ending on page 82)

We have read several different genres of literature this semester, including non-fiction, a Shakespearean tragedy, and poetry of different kinds. How does Invisible Cities fit into conventional conceptions of genre? Clearly it is fiction, but is it a novel? A collection of stories? Is it historical fiction? Fantasy? Something else?

The sections describing the interactions and conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan are key to understanding how to read Invisible Cities. Calvino uses these sections to help us make sense of the book as a whole. Examine any of these sections and consider what they tell us about the book and about the relationship between authors and readers generally.

Examine the book’s organization. Calvino clearly is not employing a chronological structure here — note that the first city description begins with “Leaving there” without ever identifying where there is. But if you examine the book closely (looking at the table of contents helps) you can discern a clear and intricate structure. What effects does this structure have on the book and on the reader?

The cities in Invisible Cities all have allegorical meaning; indeed, they may be nothing but allegories. Given the form of the book, here is an alternative for your post: pick any city described in the book, explain why it intrigues you, and speculate about what point Calvino is making by describing it.

 
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