Abstract

One hundred years after the birth of Italo Calvino, grafting a «potential path» onto his biography may serve two purposes. First, it prompts suggestions for a broader investigation of the cultural history of an era torn by radical clashes. Secondly, Calvino was a party intellectual, and this feature has lain too long in a blind spot. The article thus begins with Calvino’s journey to the Soviet Union (1951) analysing the report he published in the «Unità». In looking at the intellectual Calvino before, during and after this journey – which took place in the central years of his militancy in the Italian communist party – we find different levels of analysis combining Italian literature, culture and politics.