Italo Calvino’s chivalric novella,
Il cavaliere inesistente[
The Nonexistent Knight], is written in the form of an act of penance by a cloistered nun, sister Theodora, an omniscient narrator who plays a critical part in the story (Barrett 1992). Published in 1959 and included in the trilogy of the
Antenati[
Our Ancestors1960], it
is the last of the three allegorical tales whose protagonists — Medardo, of
Il visconte dimezzato[
The Cloven Viscount1952], Cosimo, of
Il barone rampante[
The Baronin the Trees1957], and Agilulf, of this work — form Calvino’s genealogic tree of the archetypal forebears of our modernity. Set in the time of Charlemagne and centered on the life and adventures of the nonexistent knight Agilulf, this surreal story is loosely drawn from the literary…
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Citation: Wright, Simona. "Il Cavaliere inesistente". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 August 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11650, accessed 27 November 2024.]