Italo Calvino’s Animals: Anthropocene Stories | Conversation with Serenella Iovino

Please note that this lecture will take place at

DePaul Art Museum

935 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago IL

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italo Calvino (1923-1985), the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, in collaboration with the Department of Modern Languages, Italian Program, at DePaul University, presents “Italo Calvino’s Universe” a series of lectures on literature, ecology, arts and ethics, that will explore exemplary and less known themes, from the vast body of work of the italian author, between fantastic elements and historical issues.

What are the Anthropocene, an invasive alien species, and a superorganism? When and where did writer Italo Calvino encounter the ants and the gorilla that inspired his fiction? Why did Calvino dedicate essays to cats and goats? What do Calvino’s animals in an alley, an urban garden, a lab, a factory, and a zoo tell us about themselves and about us humans? And why should we care? Ponder these and other compelling questions on Italo Calvino’s writing and life on our planet in conversation with scholar, essayist, and environmental philosopher Serenella Iovino as she discusses her recent book Gli animali di Calvino: Storie dall’Antropocene (Treccani, 2023), the revised and expanded Italian edition of Italo Calvino's Animals: Anthropocene Stories (Cambridge UP, 2021). Caterina Mongiat Farina (DePaul University) will lead the discussion with the author in English.

Free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

This program is part of The Week of Italian Language in the World, a yearly worldwide celebration of the Italian language and creativity. This initiative was born in 2001 in cooperation with the Accademia della Crusca. It is organized during the third week of October by the Embassies, Consulates, and Italian Cultural Institutes, with the support of the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), the Government of Switzerland and all of the main partners for the promotion of the Italian language.