Calvino and Animals: The Multiple Functions of Marcovaldo's Poisonous Rabbit

Abstract

Humans' use and representation of animals can reveal a great deal about a culture's values and practices, a concept which is increasingly drawing the interest of scholars, as witnessed by the recent growth in publications on the role of animals in literature, society and history. The presence of an animal - be it highly symbolic or literal - in a fictional text may serve to signal or underscore not only fundamental aspects of a writer's poetics but also his or her thoughts on society and on the "reality" in which s/he lives.