The gaze of literature upon itself: metaliterary mechanisms in Italo Calvino’s Se um viajante numa noite de inverno: 1979

Abstract

This article aims at presenting an analysis of some discourses pertaining to Se um Viajante numa Noite de Inverno that, through metaliterary resources, invite one to reflect upon the process of writing and upon the relationship established between author and reader. The study also encompasses the objective of seizing clues concerning Calvino’s perspectives upon literature, understood as capable of putting, through subjective means, objective things into question. As the theoretical scaffold for erecting my analysis, I rely on concepts presented by Calvino himself in two of his theoretical essays: “Os níveis de realidade em literatura”, found in the compilation Assunto Encerrado written in 2009 and “Leveza”, one of the Lições Americanas, in 1990.