Calvino, the myth of origins, the problem of beginnings. Working notes

Abstract

The article investigates the ideas of origin and beginning in the work of Italo Calvino. It mainly focuses on Cosmicomics and t zero, the two most important short-story collections the author published in the Sixties. They mark the beginning of a new phase for Calvino, but they also thematize the very idea of origins and problematize the concept of incipit. Firstly, the article reflects on the mixture of enthusiasm and dismay with which origins are narrated. Secondly, it considers the main strategies through which Calvino worked on the incipit of the cosmicomic stories. These strategies are then assessed contextualizing them within Calvino’s work.