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Affectionately nicknamed the “squirrel of the pen” for his acrobatic, dimension-defining abilities with language, Italo Calvino is one of Italy’s all time most powerfully imaginative writers. This graduate seminar explores his variegated literary production, from the neorealist novel The path of the Nest of Spider (1947), the heraldic trilogy Our Ancestors (1952-1959), his celebrated The Invisible Cities (1972) to the science-fictional The Cosmicomics (1966). We’ll investigate the stylistic and literary trends his work encompasses, from neorealism to postmodernism, and the interplay of individuals and environments in his novels, short stories, and autobiographical writings. Going from the woods to the moon, we’ll meditate on the values Calvino recommended for the literature of the new millennium: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, multiplicity, (and consistency).