Marco Polo nella letteratura italiana del Novecento

This essay examines the presence and function of Marco Polo in Italian literature, focusing in particular on works and authors from the second half of the twentieth century, from Primo Levi to Italo Calvino, Franco Fortini to Goffredo Parise, Umberto Eco to Giorgio Manganelli. Starting from some possible definitions inspired by the figure, the book, and even the myth of Marco Polo (elusive authorship, canonicality without an author, narrator without identity, classic without language), the essay illustrates the two different ideas of writing, opposing but not irreconcilable, that Il Milione has evoked for contemporary writers: writing as artifice and writing as experience.