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A review by wmhenrymorris
The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino
The essays in Part I are more interesting than the ones in Part II. Otherwise it would have been four stars. And the advantage of the book as a whole is that all the essays are fairly short and they are written within the context of conversations and publications in Italy (and France and England) in the 1960s and '70s. Or in other words, this Calvino very much playing the role of public intellectual.
So if you are interested in reading work that's responding to the throes of literary theory, especially that coming out of France, then you should definitely pick this up. Read the ones that grab you, skim or skip the others. I personally found it interesting as a type of highly specialized receptions studies to see Calvino bouncing off of Barthes or Frye or others, reacting near the time of publication of certain works of literary theory that are now hoary or crystalized or laminated.
So if you are interested in reading work that's responding to the throes of literary theory, especially that coming out of France, then you should definitely pick this up. Read the ones that grab you, skim or skip the others. I personally found it interesting as a type of highly specialized receptions studies to see Calvino bouncing off of Barthes or Frye or others, reacting near the time of publication of certain works of literary theory that are now hoary or crystalized or laminated.