The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Pirandello, Luigi
Pirandello, Luigi
(
1867
–
1936
),
Italian
dramatist, short story writer, and novelist, awarded the
Nobel Prize
in
1934
. He exercised a pervasive influence on European drama by challenging the conventions of
naturalism
. Among his plays, ten of which he published as Maschere nude (Naked Masks,
1918
–
22
), the best known are: Cosìit; ë (se vi pare) (Right You Are, If You Think You Are,
1917
), Sei personaggi in cerca di autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author,
1921
), and Enrico IV (Henry IV,
1922
). In these plays he anticipated the anti-illusionist theatre of
Brecht
,
Wilder
, and
Weiss
; his exploration of the disintegration of personality foreshadowed
Beckett
; his probing of the conflict between reality and appearance has echoes in the work of
O'Neill
; and his examination of the relationship between self and...
[The entire page is 277 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
