Spatial Plots: Virtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino

Marzia Beltrami

Spatial Plots
Virtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino

Marzia Beltrami

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Alessandro Baricco (1958-), Italian novelist

Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019), Italian novelist

Italo Calvino (1923-85), Italian novelist

5 other titles

Italian Perspectives 45

Legenda

26 July 2021 • 210pp

ISBN: 978-1-781883-02-0 (hardback) • RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-781883-05-1 (paperback, 21 December 2023)

ISBN: 978-1-781883-08-2 (JSTOR ebook)

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In discussions about plot, causality and chronology are sometimes held out as the only possible organising principles. And yet readers often transmute fragmented writings, parallel storylines, or tales within tales into a meaningful whole. Other patterns play a role in guiding our attention and, as Beltrami suggests, they invite us to make sense of narratives as spaces to be explored.

The critical analysis of selected works by Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958), Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019) and Italo Calvino (1923-1985) dovetails broader theoretical reflection about the ways in which narrative comprehension, far from being ‘extraordinary’, is a practice embedded in our everyday life and deeply rooted in the sense-making strategies we use to negotiate the world around us. Drawing on recent studies in cognitive literary criticism and cognitive narratology, this book investigates the techniques that elicit such ‘spatial’ understanding and illustrates how a cognitive-oriented approach may help illuminate the internal workings of certain narrative texts and open up novel readings. The images of map, trajectory and fractal are offered to represent three types of spatial plots, three ways in which stories may be understood and navigated as spaces.

Reviews:

‘Beltrami skillfully navigates the willed confusion and ambiguity in the hall of mirrors that is Se una notte, showing how Calvino writes a book that, although read sequentially, manages to create a non-linearity in the reading experience whereby the reader shifts between textual levels and landscapes... For a book on a book full of voids, Beltrami's analysis is full of very concrete textual detail and important insights.’ — Elio Baldi, Annali d'Italianistica 42, 2024, 518-19

Contents:

1-16	Introduction Sketching the Borders: Spatiality, Plot Theory and Cognitive Approaches Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.5	Cite
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17-58	Chapter 1 Plot As Map: Alessandro Baricco’s City, Or Nothing To Do With the Metropolis Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.6	Cite
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59-100	Chapter 2 Plot As Trajectory: Navigating Counterfactuals in Andrea Camilleri and the Crime Fiction Genre Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.7	Cite
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101-170	Chapter 3 Plot As Fractal: Calvino’s Se Una Notte D’inverno Un Viaggiatore. A Vertigo of Variation and Repetition Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.8	Cite
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171-174	Conclusions Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.9	Cite
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175-194	Bibliography Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.10	Cite
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195-200	Index Marzia Beltrami doi:10.2307/j.ctv1wsgrm5.11	Cite
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Bibliography entry:

Beltrami, Marzia, Spatial Plots: Virtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino, Italian Perspectives, 45 (Legenda, 2021)

First footnote reference: ³⁵ Marzia Beltrami, Spatial Plots: Virtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino, Italian Perspectives, 45 (Legenda, 2021), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: ³⁷ Beltrami, p. 47.

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Bibliography entry:

Beltrami, Marzia. 2021. Spatial Plots: Virtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino, Italian Perspectives, 45 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Beltrami 2021: 21).

Example footnote reference: ³⁵ Beltrami 2021: 21.

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Spatial PlotsVirtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino

Marzia Beltrami

Spatial Plots
Virtuality and the Embodied Mind in Baricco, Camilleri and Calvino