Calvino's Invisible Cities in the Netherlands and Flanders (In)visibilities in translation and reception

“Calvino’s Invisible Cities in the Netherlands and Flanders: (in)visibilities in Translation and Reception” by Elio Baldi and Linda Pennings traces the reception of Invisible Cities through its (marginal) presence in literary manuals, other writers’ engagements with the book through paratextual reference and parody, and an analysis of the only published translation in Dutch (1981). Academic discussion and critical readings of Invisible Cities have remained relatively scarce, though it is Calvino’s most popular book in terms of the reading public with roughly one reprint every year. Writers demonstrate their appreciation for Calvino via their paratextual homage and occasional (subtle) dialogue with Calvino’s city descriptions, and these engagements indicate which parts of the book most actively resonate with Flemish and Dutch readers. Analysis of the translation shows that many of the stylistic qualities of the original which have a clear semantic role (rhythms, symmetries, repetitions, chiasms, alliterations, the poetic concision of the work) are not sufficiently rendered in the existing translation and, as a consequence, do not reach the Dutch reader, explaining the absence of discussion of these meaningful formal aspects of Calvino’s work in Dutch-language criticism.