At the court of Kublai Kan: Storytelling as Semiotic Art in Le città invisibili by Italo Calvino

Abstract

Italo Calvino’s Le citt`a invisibili (1972) is a receptacle of semiotic acts. Focusing mainly on the dialogues between Marco Polo and Kublai Kan—considered as stages in a semiotic encounter—this essay studies a specific aspect of the book: the engagement of the author and the reader and the ways they communicate and tell (each other) stories. The roles of the two protagonists are examined and contextualized within the realm of communicative strategies to demonstrate that storytelling lies at the core of this “open text.”