Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the imagination: Calvino and the speculative fiction seen from the perspective of Leopardi and his interpreters

The article investigates the way in which Giacomo Leopardi's work and the critical interpretations of the forties and fifties inspired by Francesco De Sanctis and Antonio Gramsci can shed light on the poetics of Italo Calvino and his predilection for speculative fiction. While Calvino never penned articles specifically on Leopardi - one of his favourite authors - he often had occasion to discuss the celebrated poet and author with a number of different specialists. This article sets out to identify the interpretations that influenced Calvino and his exchanges with writers and critics such as Franco Fortini, Elio Vittorini and Cesare Pavese, Giulio Bollati, Sergio Solmi and Carlo Salinari, who were engaged in analysing Leopardi's work at the time. The ``dialogue'' among these different authors highlights the Italian cultural context of the fifties, how Leopardi's work was received during that period and the function ascribed by Calvino to speculative fiction.