Luigi Pirandello (/pɪrənˈdɛloʊ/;[1]Italian:[luˈiːdʒipiranˈdɛllo]; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was anItalian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays.[2] He was awarded the1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art".[3] Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written inSicilian. Pirandello's tragicfarces are often seen as forerunners of theTheatre of the Absurd.
Pirandello reading his work "Six characters in search of an author" (1926)
Pirandello in 1884.Luigi Pirandello Baptismal Certificate
Pirandello was born into an upper-class family in Girgenti (nowAgrigento),Sicily, near the poor suburb ofPorto Empedocle. His family's surname had originally been theGreek "Pirangelos" (Greek:Πυράγγελος),[4][5] which had been phonetically corrupted.[6] Pirandello was ofGreek descent,[6][7][8] as he noted himself in an interview toKostas Ouranis in 1934.[6][8]
The area of his birth was called "Caos", fromcàusi,Sicilian for "trousers", after the shape of a nearby ravine. His father, Stefano Pirandello, belonged to a wealthy family involved in thesulphur industry, and his mother, Caterina Ricci Gramitto, was also of a well-to-do background, descending from a family of the bourgeois professional class of Agrigento. Both families, the Pirandellos and the Ricci Gramittos, were ferociously anti-Bourbon and actively participated in the struggle for unification and democracy (Risorgimento). Stefano participated in the famousExpedition of the Thousand, later followingGaribaldi all the way to thebattle of Aspromonte, and Caterina, who had hardly reached the age of thirteen, was forced to accompany her father toMalta, where he had been sent into exile by the Bourbonmonarchy. But the open participation in the Garibaldian cause and the strong sense of idealism of those early years were quickly transformed, above all in Caterina, into an angry and bitter disappointment with the new reality created by the unification. Pirandello would eventually assimilate this sense of betrayal and resentment and express it in several of his poems and in his novelThe Old and the Young. It is also probable that this climate of disillusion inculcated in the young Luigi the sense of disproportion between ideals and reality which is recognizable in his essay onhumorism (L'Umorismo).
L'Umorismo, 1908
Pirandello received his elementary education at home, but was much more fascinated by the fables and legends, somewhere between popular and magic, that his elderly servant Maria Stella used to recount to him than by anything scholastic or academic. By the age of twelve, he had already written his first tragedy. At the insistence of his father, he was registered at a technical school, but eventually switched to the study of the humanities at theginnasio, something which had always attracted him.
In 1880, the Pirandello family moved toPalermo. It was here, in the capital of Sicily, that Luigi completed his high school education. He also began reading omnivorously, focusing, above all, on 19th-century Italian poets such asGiosuè Carducci andArturo Graf. He then started writing his first poems and fell in love with his cousin Lina.
During this period, the first signs of serious differences arose between Luigi and his father; Luigi had discovered some notes revealing the existence of Stefano's extramarital relations. As a reaction to the ever-increasing distrust and disharmony that Luigi was developing toward his father, a man of a robust physique and crude manners, his attachment to his mother would continue growing to the point of profound veneration. This later expressed itself, after her death, in the moving pages of the novellaColloqui con i personaggi in 1915.
His romantic feelings for his cousin,initially looked upon with disfavour, were suddenly taken very seriously by Lina's family. They demanded that Luigi abandon his studies and dedicate himself to the sulphur business so that he could immediately marry her. In 1886, during a vacation from school, Luigi went to visit the sulphur mines ofPorto Empedocle and started working with his father. This experience was essential to him and would provide the basis for such stories asIl Fumo,Ciàula scopre la Luna as well as some of the descriptions and background in the novelThe Old and the Young. The marriage, which had seemed imminent, was postponed.
In 1887, having definitively chosen the Department of Letters, he moved toRome in order to continue his studies. But the encounter with the city, centre of the struggle for unification to which the families of his parents had participated with generous enthusiasm, was disappointing and nothing close to what he had expected. "When I arrived in Rome it was raining hard, it was night time and I felt like my heart was being crushed, but then I laughed like a man in the throes of desperation."[10]
Pirandello, who was an extremely sensitive moralist, finally had a chance to see for himself the irreducible decadence of the so-called heroes of theRisorgimento in the person of his uncle Rocco, now a greying and exhausted functionary of the prefecture who provided him with temporary lodgings in Rome. The "desperate laugh", the only manifestation of revenge for the disappointment undergone, inspired the bitter verses of his first collection of poems,Mal Giocondo (1889). But not all was negative; this first visit to Rome provided him with the opportunity to assiduously visit the many theatres of the capital: Il Nazionale, Il Valle, il Manzoni. "Oh the dramatic theatre! I will conquer it. I cannot enter into one without experiencing a strange sensation, an excitement of the blood through all my veins..."[citation needed]
Because of a conflict with a Latin professor, he was forced to leave theUniversity of Rome and went toBonn with a letter of presentation from one of his other professors. The stay in Bonn, which lasted two years, was fervid with cultural life. He read the German romantics,Jean Paul,Tieck,Chamisso,Heinrich Heine andGoethe. He began translating theRoman Elegies of Goethe, composed theElegie Boreali in imitation of the style of theRoman Elegies, and he began to meditate on the topic of humorism by way of the works ofCecco Angiolieri.
In March 1891 he received his doctorate in Romance Philology[11] with a dissertation on the dialect of Agrigento:Sounds and Developments of Sounds in the Speech of Craperallis.
After a brief sojourn in Sicily, during which the planned marriage with his cousin was finally called off, he returned to Rome, where he became friends with a group of writer-journalists includingUgo Fleres,Tomaso Gnoli,Giustino Ferri andLuigi Capuana. Capuana encouraged Pirandello to dedicate himself tonarrative writing. In 1893 he wrote his first important work,Marta Ajala, which was published in 1901 asl'Esclusa. In 1894 he published his first collection of short stories,Amori senza Amore. He also married in 1894, choosing (on his father's suggestion) a shy, withdrawn girl of a good family of Agrigentine origin educated by the nuns of San Vincenzo: Maria Antonietta Portulano.
The first years of matrimony brought on in him a new fervour for his studies and writings: his encounters with his friends and the discussions on art continued, more vivacious and stimulating than ever, while his family life, despite the complete incomprehension of his wife with respect to the artistic vocation of her husband,[10] proceeded relatively tranquilly with the birth of two sons (Stefano and Fausto) and a daughter (Rosalia "Lietta"). In the meantime, Pirandello intensified his collaborations with newspaper editors and other journalists in magazines such asLa Critica andLa Tavola Rotonda in which he published, in 1895, the first part of theDialoghi tra Il Gran Me e Il Piccolo Me.
In 1897 he accepted an offer to teach Italian at the Istituto Superiore di Magistero di Roma, and in the magazineIl Marzocco he published several more pages of theDialoghi. In 1898, with Italo Falbo and Ugo Fleres, he founded the weeklyAriel, in which he published the one-act playL'Epilogo (later changed toLa Morsa) and some novellas (La Scelta, Se...). The end of the 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th were a period of extreme productivity for Pirandello. In 1900, he published inIl Marzocco some of the most celebrated of his novellas (Lumie di Sicilia,La Paura del Sonno...) and, in 1901, the collection of poemsZampogna. In 1902 he published the first series ofBeffe della Morte e della Vita and his second novel,Il Turno.
The year 1903 was fundamental to the life of Pirandello. The flooding of the sulphur mines ofAragona, in which his father Stefano had invested not only an enormous amount of his own capital but also Antonietta'sdowry, precipitated the financial collapse of the family. Antonietta, after opening and reading the letter announcing the catastrophe, entered into a state of semi-catatonia and underwent such a psychological shock that her mental balance remained profoundly and irremediably shaken.
Pirandello, who had initially harboured thoughts of suicide, attempted to remedy the situation as best he could by increasing the number of his lessons in both Italian and German and asking for compensation from the magazines to which he had freely given away his writings and collaborations. In the magazineNew Anthology, directed by G. Cena, meanwhile, the novel which Pirandello had been writing while in this horrible situation (watching over his mentally ill wife at night after an entire day spent at work) began appearing in episodes. The title wasIl Fu Mattia Pascal (The Late Mattia Pascal). This novel contains many autobiographical elements that have been fantastically re-elaborated. It was an immediate and resounding success. Translated into German in 1905, this novel paved the way to the notoriety and fame which allowed Pirandello to publish with the more important firms such as Treves, with whom he published, in 1906, another collection of novellasErma Bifronte. In 1908 he published a volume of essays entitledArte e Scienza and the important essayL'Umorismo, in which he initiated the legendary debate withBenedetto Croce that would continue with increasing bitterness and venom on both sides for many years.
In 1905 he took his wife to stay inChianciano Terme together with their children where they stayed for two months in what the writer described as "the village nestled on the windy hill just opposite theCollegiata".[12] Two short stories contained in the bookShort Stories for a Year are set in this town: "Bitter Water" and "Pallino and Mimì".
In 1909 the first part ofI Vecchi e I Giovani was published in episodes. This novel retraces the history of the failure and repression of theFasci Siciliani in the period from 1893 to 1894. When the novel came out in 1913 Pirandello sent a copy of it to his parents for their fiftieth wedding anniversary along with a dedication which said that "their names, Stefano and Caterina, live heroically." However, while the mother is transfigured in the novel into the otherworldly figure of Caterina Laurentano, the father, represented by the husband of Caterina, Stefano Auriti, appears only in memories and flashbacks, since, as was observed byLeonardo Sciascia, "he died censured in a Freudian sense by his son who, in the bottom of his soul, is his enemy." Also in 1909, Pirandello began his collaboration with the prestigious journalCorriere della Sera in which he published the novellasMondo di Carta (World of Paper),La Giara, and, in 1910,Non è una cosa seria andPensaci, Giacomino! (Think it over, Giacomino!). At this point Pirandello's fame as a writer was continually increasing. His private life, however, was poisoned by the suspicion and obsessive jealousy of Antonietta who began turning physically violent.
In 1911, while the publication of novellas and short stories continued, Pirandello finished his fourth novel,Suo Marito, republished posthumously (1941), and completely revised in the first four chapters, with the titleGiustino Roncella nato Boggiòlo. During his life the author never republished this novel for reasons of discretion (within are implicit references to the writerGrazia Deledda). But the work which absorbed most of his energies at this time was the collection of storiesLa vendetta del cane,Quando s'è capito il giuoco,Il treno ha fischiato,Filo d'aria andBerecche e la guerra. They were all published from 1913 to 1914 and are all now considered classics of Italian literature.
As Italy entered theFirst World War, Pirandello's sonStefano volunteered for service and was taken prisoner by theAustro-Hungarians. In 1916 the actorAngelo Musco successfully recited the three-act comedy that the writer had extracted from the novellaPensaci, Giacomino! and thepastoral comedyLiolà.
In 1917 the collection of novellasE domani Lunedì (And Tomorrow, Monday...) was published, but the year was mostly marked by important theatrical representations:Così è (se vi pare) (Right you are (if you think so)),A birrita cu' i ciancianeddi andIl Piacere dell'onestà (The Pleasure Of Honesty). A year later,Ma non è una cosa seria (But It's Nothing Serious) andIl Gioco delle Parti (The Game of Roles) were all produced on stage. Pirandello's son Stefano returned home when the war ended.
In 1919 Pirandello had his wife placed in an asylum.[13] The separation from his wife, despite her morbid jealousies and hallucinations, caused great suffering for Pirandello who, even as late as 1924, believed he could still properly care for her at home. She never left the asylum.
1920 was the year of comedies such asTutto per bene,Come prima meglio di prima, andLa Signora Morli. In 1921, theCompagnia diDario Niccodemi staged, at the Valle di Roma, the play,Sei Personaggi in Cerca d'Autore,Six Characters in Search of an Author. It was a clamorous failure. The public divided into supporters and adversaries, the latter of whom shouted, "Asylum, Asylum!" The author, who was present at the performance with his daughter Lietta, left through a side exit to avoid the crowd of enemies. The same drama, however, was a great success when presented inMilan. In 1922 in Milan,Enrico IV was performed for the first time and was acclaimed universally as a success. Pirandello's international reputation was developing as well. TheSei personaggi was performed in London and New York.
Pirandello was anItalian nationalist and supportedItalian fascism in a moderate way. In 1924, he wrote a letter toBenito Mussolini asking him to be accepted as a member of theNational Fascist Party. In 1925 Pirandello, with the help of Mussolini, assumed the artistic direction and ownership of theTeatro d'Arte di Roma, founded by the Gruppo degli Undici. He described himself as "a Fascist because I am Italian." For his devotion to Mussolini, the satirical magazineIl Becco Giallo used to call himP. Randello (randello in Italian meanscudgel).[14]
He expressed publicly apolitical belief, saying "I'm apolitical, I'm only a man in the world."[15] During these years, he had continuous conflicts with fascist leaders. In 1927 he tore his fascist membership card to pieces in front of the startled secretary-general of the Fascist Party.[16] For the remainder of his life, Pirandello was always under close surveillance by the secret fascist policeOVRA.[17]
His play,I Giganti della Montagna (The Giants of the Mountain), has been interpreted as evidence of his realization that the fascists were hostile to culture; yet, during a later appearance in New York, Pirandello distributed a statement announcing his support of Italy's annexation ofAbyssinia. He then gave his Nobel Prize medal to the Fascist government to be melted down as part of the 1935Oro alla Patria (Gold to the Fatherland) campaign during theSecond Italo-Ethiopian War.[18]
Pirandello's conception of the theatre underwent a significant change at this point. The idea of the actor as an inevitable betrayer of the text, as in theSei Personaggi, gave way to the identification of the actor with the character that they play. The company took their act throughout the major cities of Europe, and the Pirandellian repertoire became increasingly well known. Between 1925 and 1926 Pirandello's last and perhaps greatest novel,Uno, Nessuno e Centomila (One, No one and One Hundred Thousand), was published serially in the magazineLa Fiera Letteraria. He was one of the contributors of the nationalist women's magazine,Lidel,[19] and the Fascist dailyIl Tevere.[20]
Pirandello died alone in his home at Via Bosio, Rome, on 10 December 1936.[26] He refused a State funeral offered byMussolini and only in 1947 were his cremated remains buried in Sicily.[27] The Via Luigi Pirandello inAcquaviva delle Fonti is named after him.
In the context of playwriting during the early and mid-1900s, Pirandello's impact is notable. Pirandello inspired playwrights such asSamuel Beckett andHarold Pinter to write plays that echo the themes of existential exploration and metaphysical questioning that he focused on in his works.[28][29] His influence goes beyond playwrights; French philosopherJean-Paul Sartre was also inspired by Pirandello's ideas to explore one of the main pillars of his philosophy:existentialism. The playwright's portrayal of fractured identities and the ambiguity of existence in his plays served as inspiration for Sartre's concepts of freedom, authenticity, and existential angst. Pirandello's character narratives and metaphysical themes not only aligned with but also enriched Sartre's philosophical discourses, creating a link between existential thought in theater and philosophy, where each medium deepened and reflected upon the complexities and theories of the other. The dialogues between self and other, freedom and responsibility, authenticity and bad faith, found meaning in the intersection of their respective domains. His legacy pushes further reflection into the complexities of characters, human consciousness, and identity.[30]
Pirandello's contributions to theater and philosophy provide a rich tapestry of existential themes interwoven with detailed character narratives. His thorough and insightful examinations of the intricacies of the human psyche and identity have left a mark that is palpable in contemporary theater and academe. This influence, while rooted in a specific historical context, manages to bridge the gap between past and present. The careful juxtaposition of simplicity and depth in his works not only invites but stimulates discourse, resonating deeply with modern artists, playwrights, and thinkers. As a result, discussions on existential concepts, identity, and the nature of reality continue to be enriched by Pirandello's foundational ideas.[31]
1922–37:Novelle per un anno (Short Stories for a Year), 15 volumes. A selection of thirty stories was translated by Virginia Jewiss asStories for the Years (Yale, 2021).
Nearly all of Pirandello's plays were translated into English by the actorRobert Rietti. Pirandello's poetry was translated for the first time in 2016 by George Hochfield.[32] William Weaver is a noted translator of Luigi Pirandello.Frederick May translated a number of Pirandello's plays and short stories in editions published byOxford University Press andPenguin Books.
^Metcalf, Lorettus Sutton; Page, Walter Hines; Rice, Joseph Mayer; Cooper, Frederic Taber; Hooley, Arthur; Payne, George Henry; Leach, Henry Goddard; Redmond, D. G. (1925).The Forum. Forum Publishing Company. p. 383.
^abBergin, Thomas G (1976). "Pirandello, Luigi". In William D. Halsey (ed.).Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. 19. New York: Macmillan Educational Corporation. pp. 76–78.
^Luigi Pagnotta (2009).Pirandello tells Chianciano. Edizioni il pavone.
^Paulicelli, Eugenia (November 2002). "Fashion, the Politics of Style and National Identity in Pre–Fascist and Fascist Italy".Gender & History.14 (3):537–559.doi:10.1111/1468-0424.00281.S2CID144286579.
^Michaelis, Meir (September 1998). "Mussolini's unofficial mouthpiece: Telesio Interlandi - Il Tevere and the evolution of Mussolini's anti-Semitism".Journal of Modern Italian Studies.3 (3):217–240.doi:10.1080/13545719808454979.
Gardair,Pirandello e il Suo Doppio. Rome: Abete. 1977.
Janner, A.Luigi Pirandello. Firenze, La Nuova Italia. 1948.
Lucas, F. L.The Drama of Chekhov, Synge, Yeats and Pirandello. London: Cassell, 1963.
Monti, M.Pirandello, Palermo: Palumbo. 1974.
Moravia. A. "Pirandello" inFiera Letteraria. Rome. 12 December 1946.
Pancrazi, P. "L'altro Pirandello" InScrittori Italiani del Novecento. Bari: Laterza. 1939.
Pasini. F.Pirandello nell'arte e nella vita. Padova. 1937.
Podestà. G. "Kafka e Pirandello." Humanitas, XI, 1956, pp. 230–44.
Sarah Zappulla Muscarà, Enzo Zappulla,Pirandello e il teatro siciliano, Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania 1986.
Mirella Maugeri Salerno,Pirandello e dintorni, Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania, 1987.
Sarah Zappulla Muscarà (a cura di),Narratori siciliani del secondo dopoguerra, Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania 1990.
Elio Providenti (a cura di),Archeologie pirandelliane, Giuseppe Maimone Editore, Catania, 1990.
Carlo Schirru, Per un’analisi interlinguistica d’epoca: Grazia Deledda e contemporanei, Rivista Italiana di Linguistica e di Dialettologia, Fabrizio Serra editore, Pisa-Roma, Anno XI, 2009, pp. 9–32.
Virdia. F.Pirandello. Milan: Mursia. 1975.
Frederick May,Three Major Symbols in Four Plays by Pirandello, Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press, 1974.
Massimo Colella,Ritratto, autoritratto, profezia: Bontempelli esegeta di Pirandello, in «Pirandello Studies (Journal of the Society for Pirandello Studies)», 42, 2022, pp. 20–40.
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