Name: Six Characters in Search of an Author
Price: 282.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Luigi Pirandello
ISBN: 9781599102771

portada Six Characters in Search of an Author

Type

Physical Book

Author

Translated by

Publisher

Language

English

Pages

120

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

21.6 x 14.0 x 0.7 cm

Weight

0.16 kg.

ISBN13

9781599102771

Synopsis "Six Characters in Search of an Author"

Presented here for the first time together, and many for the first time in English, are the writings that formed the genesis of "Six Characters in Search of an Author," along with a new translation of the theater masterpiece itself by Martha Witt and Mary Ann Frese Witt. Although Pirandello's best-known play is now considered a revolutionary modernist work, it did not begin as avant-garde art, but rather in the musings of a relatively unknown Sicilian living in Rome. The writings included in this volume display its genesis. The idea of characters as living beings in dialogue with their author first appears as a major theme in a short story titled "Characters," published in 1906. Pirandello did not include it in any of his collections of short stories, and it has not previously been translated into English. The interaction between characters demanding to "live" in writing and an author who rejects them would be developed in Pirandello's 1911 story "The Tragedy of a Character." In 1925, Pirandello conceived the idea of writing a novel about an author who rejects the characters who come to him begging to be put into a novel, and in a July 1917 letter to his son, he gives the novel a title: "Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore: Romanzo da fare" ("Six Characters in Search of an Author: A Novel to Be Made"). In this volume Martha Witt and Mary Ann Frese Witt provide all these materials for a complete appreciation of this masterwork. "Wonderfully fresh and readable, consistent as well as fluid, sensitive to the flows of the original language and yet smooth and precise, this new translation succeeds in bringing Pirandello's masterpiece to life once again. The introduction brilliantly captures the playwright's sense of humanity's unshakeable decency and moral dilemmas; the addition of a previously untranslated short story, "Characters," enlightens the play. English-speaking readers can now appreciate to the fullest the creative energy of a twentieth-century literary genius." - Valeria Finucci, Professor of Italian & Theater Studies, Duke University A new English translation. Introduction, notes, bibliography.

Luigi Pirandello

(Author)

View Author's Page

Luigi Pirandello nació en el seno de una familia acomodada. Cursó sus estudios superiores en Palermo, Roma y Bonn. Volvió luego a Italia para ejercer de profesor de Literatura en la Escuela Normal Femenina de Roma, puesto que dejaría cuando su creciente reputación le permitió dedicarse en exclusiva a su carrera como escritor. Pirandello comenzó escribiendo poesía y relatos cortos, pero es fundamentalmente conocido por su faceta como dramaturgo.
En sus obras volcó todas sus ideas filosóficas y se permitió explorar la psicología humana por medio de personajes populares en un novedoso lenguaje teatral que dejaba atrás las convenciones tradicionales. Ya como autor reconocido, fue nombrado director del Teatro d’Arte de Roma en 1925 y miembro de la Real Academia de Italia en 1929.
En 1934 recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura por su «audaz e ingeniosa renovación del arte dramático y escénico». Aunque la figura de Pirandello quedó ligeramente empañada por sus lazos con el fascismo de Mussolini, su brillante trayectoria lo sitúa como el más importante dramaturgo de la Europa de entreguerras y uno de los grandes innovadores del teatro del siglo xx, cuya visión vanguardista sigue estando vigente hoy en día.

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