Pirandello’s Modernity:A Study of His Legacy, Influence and Actuality

From his novels to his short stories, and from theater to film, this course will examine Pirandello’s genius, singularity and cultural relevance, from the 20th century to modern-day Italy. As a seminar, the in-class discussions in this course will focus on some of Luigi Pirandello’s fundamental works. These include: Il fu Mattia Pascal; Sei personaggi in cerca di autore and Così è (se vi pare); as well as some of Pirandello’s novelle or short stories, taken from Le novelle per un anno such as, “La giara”, “Male di luna”, “Tu ridi” and “La mosca”. This selection of Pirandello’s novelle will be analyzed alongside the Taviani Brothers’ films, Kaos and Tu ridi, inspired by Pirandello’s, Le novelle per un anno.

This course will be complemented by a seminar and theatrical laboratory with Luca Vullo entitled, “Pirandello and Sicilian Gesticulation” (with particular attention given to /Liolà’s/ theatrical text).

*Required Texts:
Romano Luperini,/ Pirandello/, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008
Giovanni Macchia, Pirandello o La stanza della tortura, esaurito (fotocopie)
Giovanna Taviani, Lo sguardo ubiquo, Palumbo, Palermo 2006 (cap II Pirandello e il cinema, pp 41-58; cap V Da Pirandello a Kaos , pp.137-165).
*
Required texts for the seminar*:
Liolà/, di Luigi Pirandello.

*Films and videos screened for the course:
/Kaos (1984) and Tu ridi (1998) di Paolo e Vittorio Taviani
I Fratelli Taviani e Pirandello (DVD 2 “Dal testo allo schermo: Kaos e Tu ridi”), video didattico a cura di Vito Zagarrio, Palumbo editore 2011
La voce del corpo (2011), docufilm di Luca Vullo