1 Using fairly unknown and marginal writings, it will be argued that Calvino fails to reflect upon ItalyвЂ™s colonial past and that CalvinoвЂ™s Marxist-informed, universalist views on inequality and injustice prevent him (and other prominent Einaudi intellectuals) from fully and convincingly engaging with issues of colonialism and racism. In order to establish how self-reflective CalvinoвЂ™s stance is, the attachment or detachment that transpires from his writings on African American and post-colonial causes, and the interconnections he mentions or fails to mention until 1964 are taken into account. Lastly, CalvinoвЂ™s long travel to and through the United States in 1959вЂ“1960 and his encounter with African Americans and their struggle for recognition is a key episode in understanding CalvinoвЂ™s reflections on civil rights and racial equality. This is followed by an analysis of CalvinoвЂ™s appraisals and readings during the 1950s of books such as Roberto BattagliaвЂ™s La guerra in Africa and Mario TobinoвЂ™s Il deserto della Libia.

Thereafter, CalvinoвЂ™s (and CecchiвЂ™s, PaveseвЂ™s and VittoriniвЂ™s) encounter with the works of Richard Wright, especially Black Boy, is scrutinized. Several moments in CalvinoвЂ™s communist and post-communist period are singled out: starting in the post-war years, the article opens with the reflections on the meaning and the legacy of the Resistenza and anti-fascism by important leftist intellectuals and journals. An important underlying question is in what way the legacy of the Resistenza and anti-fascism was translated into new forms of resistance and anti-fascism after the Second World War. Taking Calvino as the pivotal example, I explore how the African American struggle and the Italian colonial legacy are present(ed) in CalvinoвЂ™s reflections, in order to establish how вЂself-reflectiveвЂ™ Calvino proved to be in this particular respect. Some of the names (besides Calvino, also Vittorini, Cecchi and Pavese) in his interesting analysis return in this article too, which adopts a more critical stance towards the вЂimpegno neroвЂ™ of these intellectuals. Leavitt contrasts this with the much more uncritical attitude vis-Г -vis the same topics of intellectuals in fascist Italy, when criticism of the racism in the United States was not effectively reflected in a critical attitude towards fascist practices in Italy and its (prospective) colonies. How do discussions on racism and colonialism fit in that environment вЂ“ if at all?ДЇor Charles Leavitt, вЂimpegno neroвЂ™ indicates the way in which important Italian intellectuals in post-Second World War Italy adopted a вЂself-reflective hermeneuticsвЂ™ towards the American situation (meaning mostly the struggle for the rights of вЂ“ and against the wrongs inflicted upon вЂ“ African Americans), demonstrating вЂtheir desire to uncover the Italian connotations of the American situationвЂ™ (Leavitt 2).

Arguably, however, CalvinoвЂ™s silences, his removals, the вЂblank spacesвЂ™ on his map, tell an important tale not only of the cosmopolitan intellectual Calvino, but also of the broader cultural and intellectual environment of the (post-)war decades in Italy. An important silence is very briefly brought into the open, even if the thread is not pursued any further. When Calvino writes this, in the short essay IdentitГ of 1977, he is addressing the problems that are inherent in his вЂneutralвЂ™, вЂblankвЂ™ whiteness, his вЂuniversalвЂ™ Europeanness and accompanying universal values. вЂA scrivere sono io, certo, ma in questo io bisogna riconoscere la parte che ha il fatto che sono un bianco eurocentrico consumista petrolifago e alfabetiferoвЂ™ ( Calvino, Saggi 2825). Italo CalvinoвЂ™s colour blindness and the question of race among Einaudi intellectuals

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