Invisible Cities

Introduction

As if hesitating on some sort of threshold between the modern and the postmodern, the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino presents a double structure of narrativity and seriality. The seriality of the cities defines the trait we shall treat as postmodern, while the framing device, the narrative of those cities which would put them into a certain perspective, relates to a modern, or in any case pre-postmodern, esthetic of a mise-en-abyme or "narrative context." In Invisible Cities Marco Polo's attitude to his descriptions of cities is postmodern; Kublai Khan's is "pre-postmodern." Well enough; we expect writers to be more avant-garde than their readers and almost anyone to be more avant-garde than an emperor. But Calvino, by authoring this Marco, thereby demonstrates that he is (or can be if he chooses) at least as up-to-date aesthetically as his character. So the question arises: Why is this old-fashioned emperor invited into the text? "Invited" is not too strong as a word; Calvino has gone to some trouble to get him here in the text. Yet his presence along with Marco within the frame further complicates the book's relationship to issues of modernity and postmodernity. In this novel conversation between Marco and Kabuli Khan has been portrayed, Marco Polo as a narrator and Kabuli Khan as audience or his listener.

Slected Theme From The Poem

The theme that has been selected from the novel is Cities & Desire. The cities in this theme of the novel considers slavery, wage, discovery and idealisation to describe the cities discovered by Marco Polo.

Gotham City

Large buildings like sky scrappers, technological advancement, a place where most of the population encourages to live in a civilized manner. The residents of the city are earning a substantial amount through their works that they can live a happy and prosperous life. People are civilized, kind in nature and are always working to improve and maintain the social standard of the city. Residents of Gotham enjoy complete freedom, it is a state which is considered ideal and a place where people can walk and talk freely. The residents observe the laws strictly and does not allow anyone to break the law. Gotham is an ideal city where everyone wants to live. Besides these idealistic features of the Gotahm City, there are few areas of Gotham, which needs improvement, as sinful people live there. Although, people of the Gotham City are not entirely aware of the criminal activities that are going on these areas. These areas of the Gotham City needs improvement, although few people who are aware about the criminal activities inside the Gotahm City have set their aim to improve reform the society, either by sending them jails or to reform their minds. The group called themselves reformers, who initially discovers and marked all the areas where these criminal activities are going on in order to start the process of societal reformation. To keep the image of Gotham as an ideal city, this group of people is working day and night and ...