Exploring Post-Modernism: Calvino's 'If on a Winter's Night Traveler'

This essay provides an analysis of Italo Calvino's novel 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' from a post-modern literary perspective, drawing on Roland Barthes' concepts of 'readable' and 'writerly' texts. The essay explores how Calvino's work incorporates elements of both text types, examining the novel's structure, narrative style, and thematic content. It delves into the use of second-person narration, the blurring of reality and fiction, and the skepticism towards metanarratives, concluding that while the novel exhibits characteristics of both readable and writerly texts, it leans more heavily towards the writerly structure due to its complexity and demand for active reader participation. The document is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools for students.

Running head: ENGLISH ESSAY 1
Post-modern literature essay
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ENGLISH ESSAY 2
Analysis of “if on a winters night traveler” on post-modern literature basis
Introduction
In many cases, literature lovers, novel reader, come across very different types of novel
from different authors, some are very easy to flow with the content, structure and can easily get
along with the theme and message, others seem very complicated and it may take you a lot of
time or never to get what message the author was trying to pass. This is the nature of literature.
Roland Barthes, a post-modern literary critic, has divided literature into two kinds of texts:
"readable texts," which are approachable, easy to comprehend, and often created specifically
with the reader in mind, and "writerly texts," which are not always easily accessible, maybe
experimental in nature, and are written to be read by those who appreciate literary craft. One of
the books that can be used to explain this concept is the Italo Calvino’s novel, “If on a winters
night traveler”. This is one of the postmodernist narratives which has taken the form of the frame
story. It’s all about a reader who seems to be trying to read a book “if on a winters night
traveler”. This essay aims at describing with evidence on if this story can be categorized on
either readable text or writerly, with reference to Roland Barthes postmodern literary critic.
(Mitchell, 2009)
According to (Mambrol, 2016) Roland Barthes there exists two major types of texts
which can be considered for postmodern literature and more specifically for nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. They are the readably text which he considers as transparent since they
seemingly have unitary meaning that the author has invested, and the reader to such content can
easily read and understand the message. Moreover, in this kind of art, the reader seems to be
passive and inert consumer of the written content. The other type of texts according to Roland
Barthes writerly texts. In the writerly text, there is a need for an active participation of the reader
so as to establish the full-text meaning. (Mambrol, 2016)
In Italo Calvino work, the chapter is divided into two sections whereby, the first section
in each and every chapter takes the second person narration and is describing the process through
which the reader undergoes through as he reads the following books chapter. This book is
structured in chapters that take art and natural structure of reading all through the twenty-two
passages. Almost all through the story, every bit of narration is covered in the second person
form, whereby some phrases while reading contain more discussion about whether the man
narrated as “you” is actually taking the form of the same “you” who is actually the reader or the
one reading the novel.
Considering the main characters in this book, the main characters in the initial chapters is
you, who is the reader. The story begins when the main character is also reading a book, and
later in some chapters, the character changes to a girl you happened to meet by the name
Lyudmila. There is a sense of share of common interest on the book and this creates a quest to
read the book for both of you. Considering the book at this level, it’s very clear that the book
content and text is readable as per the Roland Barthes postmodern literary critic.
There are several aspects that can be linked with readable texts that are used in the
Calvino’s work. A readable weird structure which is temporal disorder in nature is one of the
characteristics of this readable text. When reading the novel of “if on a winters night a traveler, a
reader can note that it's very appealing. It has a non-ending series of shortened passage on one
main story which concerns the reader who is “you” The structure likewise speaks to that of a

ENGLISH ESSAY 3
maze with a repeating void implanted in it obviously in the section about Silas Flannery
expounding on a content where he is the character in which he is composing a content.
More over its evident that the main story is in making use of the second persona, this
makes it less demanding for the reader to relate to the content yet incidentally the writer always
focuses on the composition's fictional nature. Consenting to the novel's post-futuristic nature, the
foregrounding of the ontological is available in the novel as the reader constantly reminded that
he is perusing an anecdotal novel and that makes it "writerly"(reflexivity). The novel has no
particular topic and no unmistakable plot making it less translucent and along these lines less
"readable"
The aggregate nonappearance of "reality" depicts philosophical thoughts of
postmodernism suggesting that nothing is unequivocal and total. "Postmodernism is skepticism
towards metanarratives"-A critical idea of creation is handled as the idea of the beginning of
composed material is addressed. This thought is managed in the section of Silas Flannery's
journal, in which the wellspring of thoughts was outsiders and extraterrestrials. Calvino
recommends that there is no creation, scholars are only mediums or channels and he ponders
where thoughts originate from, regardless of whether by talking about the composition of the
Koran or Silas' inner clashes managing his mental obstacle and replicating thoughts (Carl ,
1986)
In addition, the feeling of incongruity or irony is notably spoken to in the pastiches and
satires which are entered components in this book. Calvino's tone can be portrayed as pessimistic
and ironic. As well as self-preferentiality, which is found in the scrutinizing of the truth of the
book itself. Epistemology, another component of postmodernism is a component Calvino utilized
all through the novel as he underscored that nothing is authoritative (predominantly relative
(Watts, 1991)
Lastly this novel, in relation to Roland Barthes concept of readable and writerly texts,
Calvino has made use of skeptics towards progress. It can be noted that throughout, there is a
sense of frustration as the reader tries to solve mysteries in the novel. The reader never gets close
to the intended answer and keeps on finding new books, getting new puzzles and not expected
new piece. The reader is in search of the right novel or rather the right story concerning the life
he can live. He later ends up giving up on all the stories he had read. (ctheokaris, 2008)
Conclusion
In reference to the above described features in the Calvino’s work and in respect to
Roland Barthes, a post-modern literary critic, has divided literature into two kinds of texts:
"readable texts and writerly texts, its therefore right to conclude that Calvino’s story “If on a
Winter’s Night a Traveler" has taken both styles of postmodern literature. However, the greater
part of the story has utilized the writerly structure than the readable text structure.

ENGLISH ESSAY 4
References
Car, M. D. (1986). Romancing the Reader: Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. The Review of
Contemporary Fiction, P.106-116.
ctheokaris, C. (2008). If on a winters night travel. WordPress, P.4.
MambroL, N. (2016). Roland Barthes’ Concept of Readerly and Writerly Texts. Literary Theory and
Criticism Notes, p 4.
Mitchell, D. (2009). If on a winter's night a traveler. The Guardian, p.24.
Watts, M. (1991). REINSCRIBING A DEAD AUTHOR IN "IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER". Modern
fiction studies, pp. 705-716.