"... a historical novel reflecting the Sicily of the end of the 19th century and the general bitterness at the loss of the ideals of the Risorgimento (the movement that led to the unification of Italy)"--Britannica
"... a historical novel reflecting the Sicily of the end of the 19th century and the general bitterness at the loss of the ideals of the Risorgimento (the movement that led to the unification of Italy)"--Britannica
"... a historical novel reflecting the Sicily of the end of the 19th century and the general bitterness at the loss of the ideals of the Risorgimento (the movement that led to the unification of Italy)"--Britannica
"The Old and the Young" is quite different from the typical novels of the writer. It is rather an historical novel in which Pirandello combines his typical existential disenchantment with a precise "historical" disappointment.The contemporary historical background refers to the Naturalism and the veristic setting. The background is the Sicily of the bloody movements of the "Fasci" of 1893, just thirty years after the Unity of Italy: on the one hand the clericals, opposing the new Italian government; on the other side a ruling class still unprepared, without a solid moral reference.The characters of the novel interpret the different instances of Sicilian society.
Essays discuss the texts of Luigi Pirandello, one of the literary giants of this century and present an up-to-date re-evaluations of Pirandello's works, including his poetry, novels, short stories, plays, essays, letters, and memoirs.
This volume offers a complete survey and bibliography of Italian literature from 1827 to 1930, giving its three stages of development: historical, naturalistic, reflective.
Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) is one of the preeminent figures of the modern European theater. His masterpiece, Six Characters in Search of an Author, set loose a riot during its first performance in Rome in 1921. This play about six unfortunate characters abandoned by their author in the middle of a tawdry drama, is an unsettling, supremely self-conscious work that is ultimately about theatrical artifice and artistic creation itself. Pirandello and Film examines Pirandello's many efforts-none of them finally successful-to transform Six Characters into a movie. The authors examine Pirandello's views on film and its relation to theater, his varying approaches to creating a film adaptation of Six Characters, and the efforts of directors and film moguls in Germany and Hollywood to fashion a cinematic version of the play. The book also presents an array of important documents, including some that have never before appeared in English: a Prologue (or prose sketch) for a 1926 film; a Scenario (a more detailed prose sketch) prepared by Pirandello and Adolph Lantz in the late 1920s for a German film version of Six Characters; an English-language film sketch written in 1935 by Pirandello and Saul Colin; and a letter from Max Reinhardt and the German emigri Hollywood film director Joseph von Sternberg to Saul Colin regarding the proposed film treatment of the play. These documents, together with the authors' critical text, provide a detailed portrait of Pirandello's developing view of film as an appropriate medium for his revolutionary dramatic innovations. Nina daVinci Nichols, a professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author of Ariadne's Lives, Man, Myth & Monument,and two novels: Moira's Room and Child of the Night. Jana O'Keefe Bazzoni, an associate professor of speech at Baruch College, has published articles in The Luigi Pirandello Companion, Performing Arts Journal, and Modern Drama. Maurice Charney, a professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author of All of Shakespeare, Comedy High and Low, and Sexual Fiction.