Abstract

The dialogue that Italo Calvino and Leonardo Sciascia had for more than a quarter of the century offers an example of an extraordinary intellectual and literary confrontation, as well as an interesting page in the history of culture. The most significant moments coincide with two occasions for civil, political, and cultural debate of decisive importance in the history of our country, Italy, arising from the reaction of the Left Intelligentsia to the Khrushchev report and from the concerns aroused twenty years later by the opening of the assize process to the Red Brigades preceding the kidnapping of Moro. In some way, these are the two chronological extremes that in fact mark the concrete start and the substantial conclusion of the lively and frank confrontation between Calvino and Sciascia, in both circumstances counterpointed by important narrative and non-narrative pages written by these two authors