Abstract: Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino is a reinterpretation and recreation of Italian Folktales, symbolizing the deep correlation with traditions. Through knowledge compilation and verbal memory of Italian fairy-tale traditions, the author set out from creating imaginative visual images — namely “Halfling”, “Tree Man” and “Invisible Man” — respectively for his trilogy to breed and advance the stories. As for narrative skills, the author pushed forward his storylines at a compact and brisk pace from both “insider” and “outsider” perspectives; he structured the novel in three parts as a “geometric jigsaw”, so that all kinds of the fairy-tale memes can be clearly visualized. The narrative approach of “visualization” in Our Ancestors, which is the inheritance and development of Italian fairy tale traditions, involves the deep-seated narrative ethics of the “dual decline” of literary and humanistic tradition in the era of image, and reflects the author’s thinking about the modernity of novels and the existence dilemma of modern people.

Key words: Italo Calvino, Our Ancestors, fairy-tale traditions, visualization, narrative ethics