“Vital Theater: Pirandello, Marinetti, and Lebensphilosophie" (original) (raw)
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In Pirandello’s theoretical writings music is the language of modernity , because it stimulates man’s creativity to the maximum, producing “unimagined images that can be as terrible as those of nightmare, as mysterious and changeable as those of dreams” (Saggi, poesie, scritti vari). On the other hand, in his works of fiction Pirandello depicts the contemporary reality where the importance of music has been questioned, mirroring the general crisis of the arts in the Twentieth Century commercialized society: the Italian Opera, that established national identity, seems superannuated to wagnerian musicians who, in the pirandellian short story titled Musica vecchia , mocks the operistic intense expressiveness, and ridicule Icilio Saporini, old music teacher , yet linked to a romantic, departed world . In another tale , Leonora addio, the opera theatre means mundanity and moral licence for the main character, Mommina, who identifies with the fictional universe of librettos to such an extent that she can’t recognize the reality: forced to reclusion by a madly suspicious husband, she acts again, as by a distorting mirror , the same dramas of jealousy and violence she had seen on the stage. The story of Mommina is then converted in piece (Questa sera si recita a soggetto) by Dr. Hinkfuss; his critic’s glance further disassembles the inner workings of this theatre’s fascination, in a series of Chinese boxes that show the hidden untruth of the operatic world . The real music survives in confined spaces, in an underground dreary cafe where Zuccarello distinto melodista performs, or in the workhouse of Serafino Gubbio operatore novel; in this liminar place a brilliant mute violinist is self exiled to avoid a repetitive and alienating job, or a dishonourable performance in monstruos duet with a player piano. Main character’s double , the man with a violin refuses to nullify himself in a machinery , that is the Serafino’s tragic destiny, reduced to man/ crank handle; so the violinist’s art is saved for few but precious moments in the plot, as Zuccarello’s singing, nailed to a modest “distinzione” . The survival of true art firstly descends by the dissolution of traditional genres and means of communication, secondly is subjected to a replacing and redrafting in its social context, according to avantgardes’ poetic, while in open controversy with Dannunzian superomismo and Wagnerism
Pirandello in chiave esistenzialista
Quaderni d'italianistica, 2019
Roberto Salsano's latest study, Pirandello in chiave esistenzialista, is in keeping with the scholarly acumen of his fruitful critical production spanning eight centuries of Italian literary studies, from the Duecento to contemporary Italian authors. This volume consists of six chapters, preceded by a Nota al testo and followed by a useful Indice dei nomi. As the author explicitly points out (7), three of these six chapters are painstakingly revised, expanded, and updated versions of his previous Pirandello studies included in Pirandello. Scrittura e alterità (Cesati, 2005), Michelstaedter tra D'Annunzio, Pirandello e il mondo della vita (Bulzoni, 2012), and in the specialized journal Pirandelliana (2011). In this study, Salsano examines all of Pirandello's creative and critical production from his early poetry collections to the theatrical works, from his voluminous novelle to the novels. Salsano clearly demonstrates an insightful familiarity with all of the Agrigentino's primary writings, but he also exhibits an up-to-date and well-informed command of the extensive and varied Pirandello scholarship. Furthermore, the critic is able to contextualize Pirandello's works within the Italian and European philosophical, historical, and literary milieu of the fin-de-siècle and the Novecento. In all his writings, whether poetry or plays, short stories or novels, Pirandello probes into the profound consequences that modernity has inflicted on our daily lives; he does so by determining and shaping the inner and psychological temperament of his characters, who are constantly dealing with the negative effects resulting from the mechanical processes imposed upon the individual. Salsano examines Pirandello's writings within the referential context of significant European philosophers and authors such as
Si GIRA! ON THE ILLUSION OF ART AND PIRANDELLO'S PHILOSOPHY OF VITA E FORMA
Pirandello Studies, 2023
According to Pirandello, man is a self-deluding entity: every major event in his life-from love to freedom to death itself-and every work of art he produces turn out to be other than self, and therefore something indefinite. As the world is nullified individuals lose their own identities. In cinema productions this process is more radical than in any other form of art, since actors are unable to recognize themselves in the lifeless images shot by the camera. In this essay I shall argue that from Pirandello's viewpoint a new possibility stems from the seeming failure of art in the modern age: that of art staging its very inability to represent life. Meta-fiction is therefore the only possible kind of fiction. In consonance with Gavriel Moses's analysis, 1 whereby cinema and theatre are closely-related experiences, I see Gubbio's silence that ends the novel Si gira as the first step toward the Twenties' meta-theatre. This also entails adopting a Bergsonian perspective, as Luca Barattoni also does, 2 to interpret the crucial art-versus-life opposition that Tilgher uses as a key to reading Pirandello's production. From this perspective, I will carry out a detailed analysis of the plot and the main passages in Si gira.
Midwest Modern Language Association, Chicago, Illinois, 5 November 2010.
Session A 1. Teatralizzazione di un romanzo: i costumi di scena degli Indifferenti di Moravia Chiara De Santi, SUNY Fredonia 2. Pasolini e lo strappo nella coscienza dello spettatore Fulvio Orsitto, California State Univerisity-Chico 3. Lina Wertmüller regista-burattinaia Federico Pacchioni, University of Connecticut-Storrs Session B 4. Manzoni’s Count of Carmagnola and Kleist’s Prince of Homburg: History between Fiction and Factuality Maria Giulia Carone, University of Wisconsin-Madison 5. Teatro e teatralità nella poesia del primo Palazzeschi Daniele Fioretti, University of Wisconsin Madison 6. Mario Luzi’s Plays: A Plurality of Voices Ernesto Livorni, University of Wisconsin-Madison Session C 7. Distinctive Nature of Masques of Commedia dell’Arte in their Relationship with Food in 18th Century Paola Monte, Royal Holloway, University of London 8. Arlecchino is Lying: Deconstructing Goldoni’s II bugiardo Stefano Boselli, Gettysburg College 9. The Spectator in Dario Fo’s Performances: From the Foyer to the Post-Performance Debates Marco Valleriani, Royal Holloway, University of London