Pensare narrando: alle origini della critica letteraria di Calasso autore-editore

The paper aims to investigate Calasso’s critics in light of the theory of fields elaborated by Bourdieu. We will analyse Calasso’s works in relation to other Italian critics' points of view and in consideration of the Italian publishing and cultural fields of the second half of the twentieth century. In the name of the autonomy of the aesthetic, Calasso sees literature as an independent entity, that has to be detached from social, historic, political and academic discourses. We will analyse, at first, Calasso’s critic essays that appeared as paratexts in the volumes published by Adelphi. Then, we will focus on his first systematic work, La Rovina di Kash, in order to define what are the principles behind his literary, critic and editorial project. Finally, the study will consider the mechanism of reception of Calasso’s work, showing how he moves from a peripheral position to the centre of the Italian cultural field.