Pirandello in Context

A multi-faceted survey illuminating Pirandello's life, milieu, politics, and art on page and on stage for students and interested readers.

Patricia Gaborik (Edited by)

9781108424547, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 March 2024

352 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.66 kg

'Any reader and lover of Pirandello will want to own Pirandello in Context. It's packed with recent scholarship and research that's very illuminating. An invaluable source book to enhance our understanding of Luigi and his Piradellianisms.' Alan Price, LONDON GRIP magazine

For students of Luigi Pirandello's life and works, this volume provides a multi-faceted view spanning the many genres in which he wrote, from poetry and essays to fiction and drama. It gives a true sense of Pirandello's remarkable sensitivity to place – from his native Sicily to Germany and Latin America – and of how his perspective was shaped by a wide range of interlocutors with varying professional backgrounds, from contemporary philosophers to fellow playwrights like Bernard Shaw, directors like Max Reinhardt and the actress Marta Abba. Diverse contributors explore the sheer genre-bending originality of Pirandello's humor, metatheatre, and fantastic tales, and reveal how profound shifts in society, culture, and politics in his time – Freud, Futurism, Fascism – conditioned not just his thought but also his meteoric rise to fame. A final section is dedicated to Pirandello's legacy in literature and drama throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chronology
List of cited titles in translation and the original Italian
Part I. Places: 1. Sicily Beatrice Alfonzetti
2. Rome Simona Costa
3. Germany Michael Subialka
4. France Anna Frabetti
5. The United States Marella Feltrin-Morris
6. Latin America Stefano Boselli
Part II. Institutions: 7. Publishing Francesca Billiani
8. Little theatres Mirella Schino
9. National theatres S. E. Wilmer
10. The royal Italian academy Guido Bonsaver
Part III. Interlocutors: 11. Marta Abba Pietro Frassica
12. Massimo Bontempelli Patricia Gaborik
13. Gian Francesco Malipiero Anna Harwell Celenza
14. Georges Pitoëff Anna Frabetti
15. Max Reinhardt Michael Rössner
16. George Bernard Shaw John A. Bertolini
17. Benedetto Croce and Adriano Tilgher Pierpaolo Antonello
Part IV. Traditions and Trends, Techniques and Forms: 18. Humor Walter Pedullà
19. Dialect theatre Antonella Ottai
20. Metatheatre Mary Ann Frese Witt
21. The fourth wall W. B. Worthen
22. The anti-character Stefano Jossa
23. Myth Michael Bell
24. The fantastic Gabriele Pedullà
Part V. Culture and Society: 25. History Daniela Bini
26. Celebrity Lisa Sarti
27. Cinema Michael Syrimis
28. Modernity Michael Subialka
29. Fascism Patricia Gaborik
30. Women Daniela Bini
31. Religion Robert Pogue Harrison and Laura Wittman
32. Madness Valeria Paola Babini
33. Suicide Thomas Harrison
Part VI. Reception and Legacy: 34. Critical foundations Giulio Ferroni
35. Avant-garde theatre after Pirandello Cindy Rosenthal
36. Cinema after Pirandello Robert S. C. Gordon
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]