Italo Calvino: A Journey Toward Postmodernism by Beno Weiss
Published 1993 · 110,000 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Italo Calvino: A Journey Toward Postmodernism to read?
Italo Calvino: A Journey Toward Postmodernism scores 67 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 62 out of 100
- Italianist and postmodern theoretical vocabulary; accessible to graduate readers.
- Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
- Abstraction: 73 out of 100
- Engages with structuralism, semiotics, and postmodern theory.
- Information density: 74 out of 100
- Covers the full range of Calvino's work with analytical depth.
- Narrative indirection: 13 out of 100
- Direct critical argument throughout.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Calvino's own symbolic systems are central objects of analysis.
- Ironic distance: 14 out of 100
- Analytical rather than ironic.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Each work receives a concluded analysis.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Organized chronologically by Calvino's career with thematic chapters.
How Italo Calvino: A Journey Toward Postmodernism is regarded
Italo Calvino: A Journey Toward Postmodernism holds a literary regard score of 71 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.