Analyzing the Amplesso: The philosophy of lovemaking in Calvino’s Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore

Type :

Book review

Pages :

4 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

07/08/2008

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Humanities/philosophy

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Summary :

Calvino's narrator - distinguishing between the objective end and the possible subjective end.
The narrator describes the climax of the amplesso.
According to the narrator, one is able to posit a kind of direction or order in the behaviors of the lovers.
Establishing the objective end.
A subjective end in the former might be to understand one's partner more intimately.
The amplesso involves all five senses and not only sight or touch.

Abstract

Italo calvino's Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore is usually acclaimed on grounds of its experimentation with narrativity. More specifically, calvino weaves the beginnings of ten different pseudo-novels into a larger plotline involving the adventures of a reader (Lettore), who the narrator addresses directly using the tu form. But, in fact, calvino can also be interpreted as profoundly reflecting on several fundamental aspects of everyday human existence. In this paper I plan to discuss the theoretical significance calvino gives to lovemaking, or what I will refer to as the amplesso. In particular, calvino's narrator can be understood as distinguishing between the objective end and the possible subjective end or ends of the amplesso for any two lovers. Although the objective end initially appears to mirror Aristotle's account of the prime mover insofar as the lovers' behaviors necessarily approach climax, Aristotle himself presupposes a notion of linear order the narrator takes the amplesso to lack.