Invisible Cities and their name(s): insights into the (in)correctness of names

Azaryahu Maoz ()
Additional contact information
Azaryahu Maoz: Herzl Institute for the Study of Zionism, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, 2024, vol. 28, issue 4, 189-193

Abstract: The central argument of this article is that the underlying theme of the five reports entitled Cities & Names in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities is the fundamental inadequacy of names to signify cities. By challenging the taken-for-granted, common-sense idea that a name of a city corresponds to a well-defined urban entity, Calvino implicitly suggests that different cities cohabitate under the same name and that fundamentally names of cities are semiotically incorrect. The article is divided into two parts. The first expands on ideas about the correctness of proper names that since being presented in Plato's dialogue Cratylus have prevailed in western thought. The second part consists of five commentaries on the deceptive conflation between a city and its name that runs through the five reports included in Cities and Names.

Keywords: Italo Calvino; Invisible Cities; cities and names; inadequacy of names; Cratylus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/mgrsd-2023-0047 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:mgrsod:v:28:y:2024:i:4:p:189-193:n:1004

DOI: 10.2478/mgrsd-2023-0047

Access Statistics for this article

Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development is currently edited by Maciej Jędrusik

More articles in Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().