Transmedial Resonance (Paperback)

Robert A. Rushing

ISBN 10: 1531512690 / ISBN 13: 9781531512699

Published by Fordham University Press, New York, 2026

About this Item

Paperback. Introduces a new way of understanding influence, reception, and adaptation via the work of Italys most famous modern writer In Transmedial Resonance, Robert A. Rushing addresses the remarkable and ongoing responses to the imagination of Italo Calvino, Italys most important modern writer. Since his death in 1985, Calvinos writing has served as a constant figure of inspiration for other artists, and tellingly, that inspiration has been "more outside than inside." Although Calvinos reputation as a writer is immense, his influence has in fact been vastly larger outside of literature, including in architecture, city planning, community organizing, design, visual arts, video games, the performing arts, and much more. That influence is not only transmedial. It has also been "more outside than inside" across national boundaries, particularly in the English-speaking world. Rushing thinks about Calvinos influence through the metaphor of resonance. When something resonates, he argues, it may be "inspired" to do so, but it does so in its own voice, singing its own song. In fact, resonance offers an entirely different way of thinking about influence and artistic reception, stressing the energy of the inspiration rather than fidelity to the original. In keeping with that underlying sonic metaphor, Rushing looks at specifically acoustic responses to Calvino. They include Chris Cerrones Pulitzer-nominated "opera in headphones" based on Invisible Cities, Lisa Mezzacappas Cosmicomics jazz suite, and Ashwini Ramaswamys multimedia dance performance of Invisible Cities, which combines traditional South Indian Bharatanatyam, urban breaking, and African American modern dance. These works, Rushing shows, tell the story of a very different Calvino, one who is (in Mezzacappas words) "nerdy and neurotic," playfully perverse, and profoundly political. Bringing together sound studies with literary studies and cultural reception, Transmedial Resonance argues for a radical re-imagination of how we think about artistic and cultural influence, calling for a completely new understanding of this major figure of modern Italian and world literature. Using the metaphor of resonance, this study redefines influence by showing how Calvinos imaginative legacy inspires responses beyond literature. Exploring responses in architecture, design, visual arts and performance, it unveils a vibrant interplay energizing cultural and artistic expression across boundaries. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781531512699

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Transmedial Resonance (Paperback)
• Publisher: Fordham University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1531512690
• ISBN 13: 9781531512699
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Introduces a new way of understanding influence, reception, and adaptation via the work of Italy’s most famous modern writer

In Transmedial Resonance, Robert A. Rushing addresses the remarkable and ongoing responses to the imagination of Italo Calvino, Italy’s most important modern writer. Since his death in 1985, Calvino’s writing has served as a constant figure of inspiration for other artists, and tellingly, that inspiration has been “more outside than inside.” Although Calvino’s reputation as a writer is immense, his influence has in fact been vastly larger outside of literature, including in architecture, city plan­ning, community organizing, design, visual arts, video games, the performing arts, and much more. That influence is not only transmedial. It has also been “more outside than inside” across national boundaries, particularly in the English-speaking world.

Rushing thinks about Calvino’s influence through the metaphor of resonance. When something resonates, he argues, it may be “inspired” to do so, but it does so in its own voice, singing its own song. In fact, resonance offers an entirely different way of thinking about influence and artistic reception, stressing the energy of the inspiration rather than fidelity to the original. In keeping with that underlying sonic metaphor, Rushing looks at specifically acoustic responses to Calvino. They include Chris Cerrone’s Pulitzer-nominated “opera in headphones” based on Invisible Cities, Lisa Mezzacappa’s Cosmicomics jazz suite, and Ashwini Ramaswamy’s multimedia dance performance of Invisible Cities, which combines traditional South Indian Bharatanatyam, urban breaking, and African American modern dance. These works, Rushing shows, tell the story of a very different Calvino, one who is (in Mezzacappa’s words) “nerdy and neurotic,” playfully perverse, and profoundly political.

Bringing together sound studies with literary studies and cultural reception, Transmedial Reso­nance argues for a radical re-imagination of how we think about artistic and cultural influence, calling for a completely new understanding of this major figure of modern Italian and world literature.

About the Author

Robert A. Rushing is Professor of European Languages and Transcultural Studies at UCLA, where he also holds an affiliate appointment in Film, Television and Digital Me­dia. He is the author of Resisting Arrest: Detective Fiction and Popular Culture (2007) and Descended from Hercules: Biopolitics and the Muscled Male Body on Screen, winner of the 2016 AAIS (American Association for Italian Studies) Film/Media book prize. He is coeditor of two volumes on North American television: Mad Men, Mad World (2011) and Orphan Black (2018), and has published widely on Italian literature and cinema, especially popular genres and, of course, Italo Calvino.