Voyage through Italian Fantasy

Abstract

This article aim to explore the birth of the fantasy literary genre in Italy, a very slow procedure that takes centuries: before the rise of autentic fantasy, it is required to explore the genres, the authors and their works that opened the way – so to speak – to this event. So, it is very crucial get through the Middle Ages, explore the fairy tales and the chivalric literature, and the works of Italo Calvino: three of the major literature moments which have established a fertil land for the fantasy genre to born and grow within. A very long and intricated journey that lasts centuries, that runs through the literature of the bel paese but at the same time through its history and its culture; consisting in all of the aspects that – through thick and thin – can affect a literary genre so fantastic as the fantasy.