Calvino on the importance of the frame in literature

Both in art and literature, the function of the frame is fundamental. It is the frame that marks the boundary between the picture and what is outside. It allows the picture to exist, isolating it from the rest; but at the same time, it recalls - and somehow stands for - everything that remains out of the picture. I might venture a definition: we consider poetic a production in which each individual experience acquires prominence through its detachment from the general continuum, while it retains a kind of glint of that unlimited vastness.

Calvino on the importance of the frame in literature

Both in art and literature, the function of the frame is fundamental. It is the frame that marks the boundary between the picture and what is outside. It allows the picture to exist, isolating it from the rest; but at the same time, it recalls - and somehow stands for - everything that remains out of the picture. I might venture a definition: we consider poetic a production in which each individual experience acquires prominence through its detachment from the general continuum, while it retains a kind of glint of that unlimited vastness.

Posted 5 months ago & Filed under Italo Calvino, lit, literature, art, frame, Under the Jaguar Sun, 23 notes

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A collection of literature, film, politics, music and art; with occasional comment. Credit given where possible.

Philosophy and Politics undergrad student at the University of Sheffield.

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