The Differnt Cities And The Convergent Life:Calvino’s Imaginations On The Invisible Cities

Invisible cities is one of the most abundant and complex works of Italo Calvino. The book consists of 11 themes on the city. In addition, Italo Calvino made up five fiction cities for each theme. Calvino divided these 55 different cities into nine chapters orderly and put Marco Polo and Kublai Khan’s imaginary conversations before each chapter.According to his own realistic experience, Calvino realized that the difference of the modern city life is gradually disappearing. We live in the different cities but in the similar lifestyle. Reading Invisible Cities, we find that the 55 different cities are similar. Wether this effect of "difference" and "convergence" formed intentionally or not? How does it be specifically presented in the text? Firstly, in the respect of the content, the description of 55 different fictional cities eventually points to the discussion on "City and Memory" and "City of Desire". Thus, the memory and desire are the core issues Calvino thought about the city. Secondly, the text combines a variety of literary genres, especially its poetic characteristics. Furthermore, Calvino insisted his poetic idea when he was writing his book.The analysis on the "difference" and "convergence" inside Invisible Cities can help us to understand Calvino’s city view. And then it will deepen our thoughts on modern cities.