Academic literature on the topic 'Pirandello, Luigi (1867-1936) – Esthétique'

Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) was an Italian modernist writer and playwright who enriched literature with questions of modern identity as it relates to the contradiction between human consciousness and reality. Pirandello pondered questions of art and reality, mask and essence, life and form, and the fragmentation of a personality. In his works, he also foresaw what would later constitute the base of existential philosophy.The reception of Pirandello’s works in Lithuania has been limited, in part because of the small number of his works translated into Lithuanian – only a dozen short stories, two plays, and a novel.The first more or less systematic and thorough introduction to the play wright and his works took place in 1934, when the Italian writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his “bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage.” A few articles on Pirandello’s creative principles appeared in the Lithuanian press. A Lithuanian poet, Kazys Binkis, translated the beginning of Pirandello’s play, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author, 1921), and a writer, Kostas Korsakas, edited a book consisting of five novels, Pirmoji naktis (‘First Night’). A Lithuanian translation of his novel, Il fu Mattia Pascal (The Late Mattia Pascal, 1904), and two plays, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore and Enrico IV (Henry IV, 1922), came out during the Soviet period.All translations were accompanied by a foreword containing basic biographical details about and introducing Pirandello’s cultural, literary and creative life. Although Pirandello gets attention in Lithuanian university textbooks, no academic paper about him or his works has been published yet. There have been no translations of Pirandello’s theoretical texts, his thoughts on the cultural situation, literature, and man at the beginning of the 20th century, i.e., a volume of essays Arte e Scienza (Art and Science) written in 1908 or an important long essay, L’umorismo (On Humor), in which author also examines the principles of his own art. On the other hand, the literary reception of Pirandello’s works has been supplemented by theater performances. Five plays of his were mounted and the play, Henry IV, was twice produced on Lithuanian theater stage.The article examines why Pirandello’s artistic ideas, which reached Lithuania during the second decade of the 20th century, remained on the periphery and failed to influence the literary canon. Keywords: Luigi

The main discussion in this paper is to show how Luigi Pirandello (1867- 1936) in The oil jar (1909) describes the different characteristics of Southern Italian agrarian society of 20th century. The protagonist of the story is a rich Italian farmer from Sicily. It is important to see physical description of the characters in the story to form an idea of the personality of the farmers. This paper reveals different aspects of the agricultural Italian society where large number of farmers is not well organized and is exposed to be exploited by rich landlords of village. The artisans are not being appreciated for their work and are under paid. Through the use of comic elements, author reflects the characteristics of materialistic Italian society.

L'intérêt initial de Pirandello pour la doctrine théosophique a été à maintes reprises souligné par la critique pirandellienne. En effet, il s'agit d'un intérêt qui laisse des traces évidentes, surtout dans la première partie de la production narrative de l'auteur, où à plusieurs reprises, des passages d'origine théosophique sont traduits et cités. Le travail proposé tente d'analyser l'incidence de la doctrine théosophique dans la formation de l'imaginaire de Luigi Pirandello, dans les années 1886 à 1909, en considérant la reprise par Pirandello de passages théosophiques comme le symptôme d'une réutilisation théorique plus large de la part de l'auteur, dans laquelle reconsidérer également les reprises exactes pour en comprendre pleinement la pertinence et la valeur. Le travail progresse donc en interrogeant les matrices de la réflexion esthétique de Pirandello, en particulier celles de Luigi Capuana et de Gabriel Séailles, pour les trouver non nécessairement satisfaisantes dans le but d'une compréhension exhaustive du substrat intellectuel dans lequel la construction théorique pirandellienne germe : la découverte d'une source inédite, citée dans L'humorisme, La poétique de Schiller (1902) de Victor Basch semble, en revanche, fournir des stimuli suffisants pour comprendre comment le concept de « au-delà » pirandellien s'articule avec les nombreux facteurs conceptuels contribuant à la formulation esthétique de l'auteur. Sur la base de la source romantique, retrouvée via Basch, Pirandello semble avoir élaboré un système esthétique dans lequel le concept romantique du moi occupe une place centrale : cette réévaluation du rôle du moi dans la pratique et la réflexion artistique de Pirandello semble fournir la base pour comprendre la réutilisation que l'auteur a également faite des positions théoriques de la théosophie.Comme essentiellement explicité dans le deuxième chapitre, le moi de l'auteur semble se poser, pour Pirandello, comme un moi de stature démiurgique capable de phagocyter le monde extérieur et de le ennoblir en le faisant passer dans la conscience de l'artiste : l'artiste se laisse définir comme celui qui, ayant vécu une « expérience amère de la vie », est capable de se détacher des illusions et d'accéder à une dimension véritable de l'être, dimension dans laquelle il se voit vivre pour la première fois. L'œuvre de « réflexion » semble coïncider avec ce que les théosophes, en particulier Franz Hartmann, appellent produit de l'auto-conscience. Sur la base de ces présupposés, l'analyse des nouvelles métaphysiques pirandelliennes se développe, comme explicité dans le troisième chapitre. Les nouvelles examinées n'ont pas encore été largement discutées par la critique, mais semblent toutes être plus ou moins impliquées dans des sémantiques de type théosophique et avoir une profonde dimension métalittéraire. Tous les textes cités semblent représenter un ou plusieurs aspects particuliers du processus de création artistique, ou mettre en scène des phénomènes ou des sujets théoriques tirés de la littérature théosophique : souvent les deux se produisent simultanément, de sorte que l'intrigue du texte individuel semble s'élever à la fois en tant que symbole et en tant qu'assomptions de type métalittéraire et de type métaphysique. La dernière partie du travail aborde l'étude, en termes théosophique-esthétiques, de la première édition d'Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904), cherchant à intégrer dans une interprétation générale justement esthétique-théosophique les passages significatifs où Pirandello, à l'intérieur du roman, cite, directement ou indirectement, la doctrine théosophique
The early interest of Pirandello in theosophical doctrine has been repeatedly highlighted by Pirandello criticism. Indeed, it is an interest that leaves clear traces, especially in the early part of the author's narrative production, where passages of theosophical origin are translated and cited on several occasions. The proposed work attempts to analyse the impact of theosophical doctrine on the formation of Luigi Pirandello's imagination, from the years 1886 to 1909, considering Pirandello's resumption of theosophical passages as symptomatic of a broader theoretical reuse by the author, in which even the exact reprisals are reconsidered to fully understand their relevance and value. The work therefore proceeds by examining the matrices of Pirandello's aesthetic reflection, particularly those of Luigi Capuana and Gabriel Séailles, to find them not necessarily satisfying for a comprehensive understanding of the intellectual humus in which Pirandello's theoretical construction germinates: the discovery of an unpublished source, cited in L'umorismo, La poétique de Schiller (1902) by Victor Basch, seems instead to provide sufficient stimuli to understand how the Pirandellian concept of «beyond» is organized together with the many conceptual factors contributing to the author's aesthetic formulation. Based on the romantic source found through Basch, Pirandello seems to have developed an aesthetic system in which the romantic concept of self assumes a central place: this revaluation of the role of the self in Pirandello's artistic practice and reflection seems to provide the basis for understanding the author's reuse of theosophical theoretical positions.As essentially explained in the second chapter, the author's self seems to position itself, for Pirandello, as a demiurgic self-capable of engulfing the external world and ennobling it by making it pass through the artist's consciousness: the artist is framed as one who, having undergone a «bitter experience of life», is able to detach himself from illusions and access a true dimension of being, a dimension in which he, for the first time, «sees himself living». The work of «reflection» seems to coincide with what the theosophists, particularly Franz Hartmann, call the product of self-awareness. On the basis of these assumptions, the analysis of Pirandello's metaphysical novellas develops - as explained in the third chapter. The novellas under examination have not yet been widely discussed by critics, but they all seem to be more or less colluded with theosophical semantics and have a deep metaliterary quality. All the texts cited seem to represent one or more particular aspects of the artistic creation process, or to stage phenomena or theoretical arguments drawn from the theosophical literature: often both occur simultaneously, so that the plot of the individual text seems to rise at the same time as a symbol and as assumptions of a metaliterary and metaphysical nature. The last part of the work addresses the study, in theosophical-aesthetic terms, of the first edition of Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904), seeking to integrate into a general aesthetic-theosophical interpretation the significant passages in which Pirandello, within the novel, directly or indirectly cites the theosophical doctrine

Cette thèse a pour objectif de mettre en évidence et d'analyser les thématiques pirandelliennes dans le théâtre de Jean Genet. Á cet effet, elle propose une redéfinition du pirandellisme, qui était sujet à de nombreuses controverses depuis sa première définition d'inspiration philosophique par le critique italien Adriano Tilgher en 1923. La nouvelle définition du pirandellisme proposée ici est construite à partir de cinq caractéristiques principales: le dualisme entre la vie et la forme, l'humorisme pirandellien, la suprématie de l'œuvre d'art sur la vie, l'impossibilité d'être un soi unifié et la métathéâtralité. Cette nouvelle modélisation dramaturgique du pirandellisme sert à analyser les pièces métathéâtrales de Pirandello et l'ensemble du théâtre de Genet dans le but d'appréhender l'historicité des textes, leur ancrage - et parfois absence d'ancrage - par rapport à leurs contextes de production et les liens qu'ils tissent entre eux. L'un des plans théoriques pris pour analyser l'influence de la dramaturgie et de l'esthétique de Pirandello sur le théâtre de Genet est de nature historique, portant précisément sur l'histoire du théâtre et des formes scéniques en Italie et en France au XXe siècle. Ce travail est étroitement lié à la question de l'auteur et à celle de l'influence. Outre le pirandellisme, la déconstruction du réalisme, le renoncement au mimétisme psychologique ou gestuel, aux effets d'illusion, la mise en espace d'un nouvel univers fictionnel et l'abondance des textes divers et didascalies qui dessinent et préconisent la mise en scène avec une précision méticuleuses sont autant de caractéristiques qui réunissent ces deux auteurs
This thesis highlights and analyzes the Pirandellian themes in Jean Genet's plays. It proposes a redefinition of Pirandellism, which was the subject of much controversy from the time of its first definition, of philosophical inspiration, by the Italian critic Adriano Tilgher, in 1923. The new definition put forward here is based on five main characteristics: dualism between life and form; Pirandellian humourism; the supremacy of the art work over life; the impossibility of being a unified self; and metatheatricality. This new dramaturgical modelling of Pirandellism serves to analyze Pirandello's metatheatrical plays and all of Genet's theatre, with a view to understanding the historicity of the texts, that is, their anchorage – and sometimes absence thereof – in relation to their contexts of production and the relationships they weave between them. One of the theoretical frames of reference taken to analyze the influence of Pirandello's dramatic art and aesthetics on Genet's theatre is historical and precisely relevant to the history of theatre and scenic forms in 20th century Italy and France. This work is closely linked to the question of the author and of influence. Apart from Pirandellism, the deconstruction of realism, the giving up of psychological or gestural imitation and of the effects of illusion, the spatial framing of a new fictional world, and the abundance of varied texts and forms of stage direction that outline and recommend staging with meticulous precision are all characteristics common to these two authors

Fortement signifiante quant a l'histoire du sujet-scripteur et lourde des effets ideologiques de l'apparition de chaque texte au sein du texte general, l'oeuvre romanesque de luigi pirandello se caracterise par le jeu en elle d'une combinatoire qui situe la force productrice du sens - au-dela des configurations des enonces - dans l'enonciation meme. La tension phatique s'accentue au fil des romans : l'ecriture devoile sa fonction primordiale de mise en scene du probleme d'iden- tite tandis que le lecteur, enferme dans le texte, devient le parte- naire necessaire et soumis du dialogue avec lui-meme par lequel l'auteur se tend vers l'espoir d'une semiose illimitee. L'ecriture se heurte neanmoins aux formes de spectacle (le theatre et le cinema) qui, au detour du siecle, inscrivent l'oeuvre d'art dans le marche sous le signe du travail et de l'argent, et revelent les insuffisances de l'ecrit dans ces conditions modifiees d'emission et surtout de recep- tion. La litterature ne peut restaurer son pouvoir qu'en faisant du verbe un instrument vengeur et de l'acces au theatre l'occasion d'offrir a l'imaginaire l'espace de sa mise en scene. Enfin, dans une ecriture mue par les urgences de la compensation et du defoulement, s'inscrivent les dechirements du vecu. Des procedures de detournement exhibent plus qu'elles ne cachent l'impossible accord entre la ten- sion erotique qui pousse vers l'autre et la ferveur d'ecriture qui fait du moi son propre objet de desir : seule l'actrice, en tant qu'elle se constitue en "corps" de l'ecriture, remedie a cette divi- sion du moi et fonde le pouvoir du poete, refusant la traumatisante naissance et la douleur d'etre homme, pirandello se construit ecrivain
Rich in significance as far as the story of the subject of writing is concerned and replete with the ideological effects entailed by the emergence of each text within the general text, the prose work of luigi pirandello is characterized by a combinatory system which places the process of signification beyond the configurations of the utterances and within enunciation itself. Novel after novel, the phatic tension becomes more strongly marked : the writing unveils its main function which is that of staging the identity problem, while the reader, prisoner of the text, becomes the indispensable and submissive partner of the writer who tries to reach an unlimited semiosis through a dialogue with himself. The writing, though, comes up against the various forms of spectacle (theatre and cinema) which, at the turn of the century, make of the work of art a marketable product and reveal the inadequacies of the written work in those modified conditions of emission and especially reception. Literature can only recover its power through making of the word a tool of revenge and of the theatre an opportunity for the imaginary to stage itself. Lastly, pirandello's writing, actuated by the urges of compensation and release, also reflects the wrenching conflicts of experience. Procedures of indirection reveal more than they hide the impossible harmony between the erotic tension which drives towards the other and the fervour of writing which makes of the ego its own object of desire : the actress alone, in so far as she becomes the "body" of the writing, remedies this splitting of the ego and founds the power of the poet. Refusing both the trauma of birth and the pain of being a man, pirandello thus comes into being as a writer

Men don't cry (creation). In a neighborhood of a large North American city, a loaf of rye bread brings back adolescent memories to a middle-aged man. Bill remembers his College friends, Nick, Jack and Alec. They will all pass through the same Diner, the same evening, 20 years later without recognizing each other. Those of them who will cross paths will die that same night. It's a story about chance. It's a free cinematographic adaptation of four short stories from three different authors: The Rye Bread by Ray Bradbury, Continuite des parcs and N'accusez personne by Julio Cortazar as well as Fat by Raymond Carver.
Illuminations: From Pirandello toward Kaos ( criticism). When the filmmakers the brothers Taviani decide to undertake their adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's four short stories for the screen, they choose Kaos for the title of their film. Through the study of two of the four adapted short stories, this thesis tries to demonstrate that the adaptation of a literary work or a written text to a filmic text necessarily passes through a chaos that separates the two very different languages. The interpretative work consists of passing through this same chaos using different writing and mise en scene techniques. The aim of this short study is to dissect the links that exist between the two very distinct entities, the written text and the filmic text, through a magisterial and concrete example.

Luigi Pirandello's two short stories La verita and Certi obblighi and the play derived from them Il berretto a sonagli seem to be, at least on the surface, about adultery. The three male protagonists' dilemmas come about as a result of their wives' sexual transgressions, which consequently impose certain "obligations" upon them. The themes of adultery and betrayal, however, are merely surface elements, used to explore the theatrical nature of identity and of all social experience. Specifically, the three works show how role-playing-within-roles safeguards the identity of the betrayed husbands, by protecting them from social humiliation.
Since all Pirandellian characters role-play, and as a consequence portray and assume multiple identities, this thesis examines the function and significance of this technique in both narrative and theatrical contexts. It attempts to show that while the device is a feature common to all three works, it is in the dramatic adaptation that role-playing in relation to identity acquires its more visible and effective treatment.

Pour une étude de la condition féminine et de l'image de la femme dans l'œuvre de Luigi Pirandello, un rappel historique de la condition féminine en Italie, et principalement en Sicile, et un rapide aperçu des mouvements féministes dans la première moitié du XXème siècle, nous ont paru nécessaires. Nous avons, ensuite, analysé comment Luigi Pirandello présente le personnage féminin. Nous avons mis en évidence une évolution de ce personnage : la femme destructrice et funeste se transforme progressivement en une femme sublime, idéalisée dans le mythe de la maternité. Nous avons dressé une typologie des caractères féminins dans l'œuvre narrative et théâtrale, en fonction de l'influence qu'ont pu avoir sur eux la misogynie typiquement méditerranéenne, la jalousie, le rôle néfaste joue par la belle-mère, la solitude pathétique de la femme seule, laide ou veuve par exemple. Nous nous sommes livrés enfin à une étude détaillée des personnages féminins dans les pièces du théâtre pirandellien tels qu'ils apparaissent par ordre chronologique. Tout d'abord, dans les pièces écrites avant 1925 : depuis les premiers succès jusqu'à l'apogée des Six personnages en quête d'auteur et d'Henri IV. Puis, dans une deuxième partie, nous avons déterminé comment la rencontre de l'actrice Marta Abba a pu profondément modifier la conception pirandellienne du caractère féminin
For the study of the condition and image of women in the work of Luigi Pirandello, an historical survey of the women's condition in Italy, and more precisely in Sicily, as well as a rapid study of the feminist movements in the early part of the XXth century, have seemed compulsory. A further analysis of how Pirandello introduced the female characters was made. An evolution of these characters emerged: the funest, destructive female progressively turns into a sublime woman, idealized in the maternity myth a typology of female characters in Pirandello’s narrative and theater works, has been made, regarding the influence which could have on them, the typically Mediterranean misogyny, jealousy, the often tragic misunderstanding between spouses, the harmful role played by the mother in law; the pathetic solitude of a sole woman, perhaps ugly or widowed. Finally a detailed survey, following the chronological order of appearance, of female characters in Pirandello’s theater pieces was made; first in the pieces written before 1925 : from the early successes to the apogeum of "Six personnages en quête d'auteur", and "Henry IV". And, in a second part, we have determined how had the encounter of the author with the actor Marta Abba deeply changed his conception of the female characters

The subject of this thesis is an intertextual and psycho-analytic study of the relationship between two major dramatists of twentieth century Italian Theatre, Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo. The analysis is in part conducted according to the concept of influence developed by Harold Bloom in The Anxiety Of Influence and expressed in "Freudian" terms, in which one poet, the later (Eduardo De Filippo), is presumed to "struggle" with or try to surpass his precursor (Luigi Pirandello).

Dans l'accés à la vérité, le corps n'est pas un lieu privilégié de connaissance, ni pour le sujet, ni pour les autres. Le corps est au contraire le lieu de l'équivoque du sens. Seule la volonté fournit le sens authentique : mais les signes naturels et les signes verbaux livrent le sujet à la distorsion du sens. Dieu est pour les autres la garantie de l'adéquation du langage au réel. En vérité, l'autorité, subsititut de la transcendance vraie, établit la transparence du langage parce qu'elle institute le réel par le langage. Le réel est fondé par le "texte" social. Le "texte" des autres aliène le sujet, et l'exclut de sa vérité. Le nom (avec l'histoire qu'il porte), les actes, sont autant de prises que les autres ont sur le sujet. Celui qui veut faire advenir la vérité dans le discours est réputé fou, par la production de soi (sociale : la logique ou la folie feinte - artistique : comme auteur ou comme spectateur) le sujet peur avoir une maitrise des signes. Le retour du réel des autres, même s'il est possible, à contre lui le temps, par lequel toute nouvelle expression de soi sera possible. Il est une possibilité que la vérité du sujet s'exprime, sans subir le "texte" aliénant des autres : dans la relation fusionnelle, dont le prototype est la relation à la mère. Dans la religion éthique que propose Lucio dans Lazare, cette relation fusionnelle semble pouvoir donner lieu à une intersubjectivité ouverte à tous
To know the truth, the human body is not a privileged point of knowledge, neither for the subject, nor for the others. On the contrary, the body is the point of the ambiguity of sense. Only will gives the authentic sense ; but the natural and the verbal signs give the subject to the distorsion of sense. God is for the others the guarantee of "adaquatio rei et intellectus". In fact, the authority, subsititute of true transcendence, establishes the transarentness of the language because it instaurates realty in the language. Reality is founded by the "text". This "text" alienates the subject, and removes him from his own truth. The name (with the story it brings), the actions, give the subject to the others. Th eone who wants to make truth appear is said to be mad. The return of the reality of the others, event if it is possible, has against itself the time, by which any expression of oneself is possible. The truth of the subject can express itself, without suffering the alienating "text" of the others in the fusional relation, the pattern of which is the relation to the mother. This type of relation can become an universal intersubjectiveness

This MA thesis is a comparative study of the novels of Luigi Pirandello (Agrigento 1867--Rome 1936) and Max Frisch (Zurich 1911--1991). Six texts are discussed: Pirandello's Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904), Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore (1915), and Uno, nessuno e centomila (1925--6); and Frisch's Stiller (1954), Homo faber (1957), and Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964). The comparison highlights the great similarities between Pirandello's and Frisch's treatment of the theme of identity as well as some important (and mainly structural) differences in their novelistic works. The analysis of the three pairs of novels shows the developments in narrative structure and the characteristic change of attitude towards the question of identity construction that took place from early-modernism to postmodernism.