Scarti di casa, scarti di sé. Intorno a “La poubelle agréée” di Italo Calvino

Abstract

The essay analyzes Italo Calvino’s short story "La poubelle agréée", included in the collection "La strada di San Giovanni", highlighting how the everyday act of “taking out the trash” acquires philosophical and political significance. Through a true phenomenology of waste, Calvino reflects on the relationships between private and public, individual and community, life and death, transforming the banal gesture of waste disposal into a ritual of purification and an occasion for meditation on identity. The text is structured around spatial shifts (kitchen, garage, street, return to the kitchen) that trace a circular and chiastic path, where figurative isotopies (inside/outside, above/below, containing/contained) and a strong sensory dimension emerge.