Italo Calvino’s Architecture of Lightness Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature 1. Testimony from the Nazi Camps 10. Before Auschwitz French Women’s Voices Irène Némirovsky and the Cultural Margaret-Anne Hutton Landscape of Inter-war France Angela Kershaw 2. Modern Confessional Writing New Critical Essays 11. Travel and Drugs in Twentieth- Edited by Jo Gill Century Literature Lindsey Michael Banco 3. Cold War Literature Writing the Global Confl ict 12. Diary Poetics Andrew Hammond Form and Style in Writers’ Diaries, 1915–1962 4. Modernism and the Crisis of Anna Jackson Sovereignty Andrew John Miller 13. Gender, Ireland and Cultural Change 5. Cartographic Strategies of Race, Sex and Nation Postmodernity Gerardine Meaney The Figure of the Map in Contemporary Theory and Fiction 14. Jewishness and Masculinity Peta Mitchell from the Modern to the Postmodern 6. Food, Poetry, and the Aesthetics Neil R. Davison of Consumption Eating the Avant-Garde 15. Travel and Modernist Literature Michel Delville Sacred and Ethical Journeys Alexandra Peat 7. Latin American Writers and the Rise of Hollywood Cinema 16. Primo Levi’s Narratives Jason Borge of Embodiment Containing the Human 8. Gay Male Fiction Since Charlotte Ross Stonewall Ideology, Confl ict, and Aesthetics 17. Italo Calvino’s Architecture Les Brookes of Lightness The Utopian Imagination in 9. Anglophone Jewish Literature an Age of Urban Crisis Axel Stähler Letizia Modena Italo Calvino’s Architecture of Lightness The Utopian Imagination in an Age of Urban Crisis Letizia Modena New York London First published 2011 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2011 Taylor & Francis The right of Letizia Modena to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaf- ter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade- marks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book. ISBN 0-203-81764-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN13: 978-0-415-88038-1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-81764-3 (ebk) Ai miei genitori Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 1 The Inner City of the Imagination: Utopia and the Ethical Charge of Fiction 17 2 Retroterra: Urban Planners, Architects, and the City in Crisis 57 3 Memos for the City of the Next Millennium: Invisible Cities as Embodiment of Urban Renewal 91 4 Architectures of Lightness 131 Epilogue 185 Notes 191 Works Cited 217 Index 239 Figures 1.1 Guy Rottier, Rêver (Daydreaming). Courtesy of Guy Rottier. 41 2.1 Otto Frei, Petite ville de l’avenir (Small City of the Future), 1960. In Michel Ragon, Histoire mondiale de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme modernes. Courtesy of Éditeur Casterman. 58 2.2 Nicolas Schöffer, Centre de loisirs sexuels (Center for Sexual Diversions). In Michel Ragon, La cité de l’an 2000. Courtesy of Éditeur Casterman. 84 2.3 Fausto Melotti, Alfabeto (Alphabet), 1971. Courtesy of Archivio Fausto Melotti. 89 3.1 Paul Maymont, Ville des sables (City in the Sands). In Michel Ragon, Histoire mondiale de l’architecture et de l’urbanisme modernes. Courtesy of Éditeur Casterman. 95 3.2 Paul Maymont, Megastructure lunaire (Lunar Megastructure). In Michel Ragon, Histoire mondiale de l’architecture e de l’urbanisme modernes. Courtesy of Éditeur Casterman. 99 3.3 Fausto Melotti, Il sonno di Wotan (Wotan’s Sleep), 1958. Courtesy of Archivio Fausto Melotti. 116 4.1 Fausto Melotti, Scultura n. 21 (Sculpture Num. 21), 1935–68. Courtesy of Archivio Fausto Melotti. 136 4.2 Nicolas Schöffer, Centre de recherches scientifi ques (Center for Scientifi c Research). In Michel Ragon, La cité de l’an 2000. Courtesy of Éditeur Casterman. 136