Invisible Cities and their name(s): insights into the (in)correctness of names

Abstract The central argument of this article is that the underlying theme of the five reports entitled Cities & Names in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities is the fundamental inadequacy of names to signify cities. By challenging the taken-for-granted, common-sense idea that a name of a city corresponds to a well-defined urban entity, Calvino implicitly suggests that different cities cohabitate under the same name and that fundamentally names of cities are semiotically incorrect. The article is divided into two parts. The first expands on ideas about the correctness of proper names that since being presented in Plato's dialogue Cratylus have prevailed in western thought. The second part consists of five commentaries on the deceptive conflation between a city and its name that runs through the five reports included in Cities and Names .