Luigi Pirandello

June 28, 1867, Mr.. - December 10, 1936
Luigi Pirandello, Italian playwright, short story writer and novelist, was born in Dzhirdzhenti (now Agrigento) in Sicily and was the second of six children in the family of a prosperous owner of the mine for the extraction of sulfur. Literary talent of the future writer had already manifested itself in the school; still a teenager, he wrote poetry, wrote a tragedy of 'The Barbarian' ( 'Barbaro'), which has not survived.
After an unsuccessful attempt to join the family business R. entered the University of Rome (1887), but a year later, dissatisfied with the level of teaching, moved to Bonn University, where he studied literature and philosophy, and in 1891, Mr.. received a degree in Romance Philology, wrote a work on the Sicilian dialect. In 1889, Mr.. published the first collection of poetry P. 'Glad pain' ( 'Mal giocondo'), which shows the influence Giosue Carducci. Finished his studies, P. remained in Bonn and a year lecturing at the university.
Back in 1893. Rome and securing financial support from the father, P. begins to write: his first novel 'The Rejected' ( 'L'esclusa') comes out in 1901, . as written in the tradition verism first collection of short stories 'Love without love' ( 'Amori senz amore') - in 1894, . in the same year the writer marries Antuanette Portulato, . daughter's companion of her father, . the marriage with whom he had two sons and a daughter,
. In 1898, Mr.. P. became a professor of Italian literature at the Pedagogical College in Rome, where he teaches until 1922. His first play, a one-act drama, 'Epilogue' ( 'L'epilogo'), P. wrote in 1898, but in the theater it was staged only 12 years later, in 1910, called 'sting' ( 'La morsa').
In 1903, Mr.. the flood destroyed his father's mine, and now teaching literature and stayed for P. the only way to exist Niya. In 1904. the writer's wife suffered a serious nervous breakdown and for the next 15 years, suffered from delusions of persecution, gave her husband out of jealousy, hysteria, and in 1919. P. was forced to put her in a psychiatric hospital.
Despite the family and financial turmoil, P. continues to write and print. Great success falls to his third novel, 'The late Mattia Pascal' ( 'Il fu Mattia Pascal', 1904), which sounds distinctly issue 'face masks'. The theoretical and aesthetic views on the art of the writer expounded in two books in 1908: an article 'Humor' ( 'L'umorismo'), which revealed its complex tragicomic vision of the world, and a collection of essays 'Science and art' ( 'Arte e scienza') .
. Until 1915, when it was first staged three-act play P
. 'If it is not so ...' ( 'Se non cosi ...'), writer worked mainly in the genre of novels and short stories: but after 1915. entirely devoted himself to drama, which gave him the opportunity to live comfortably and eventually leave teaching. From 1915 to 1921. P. wrote 16 plays, all of whom were on the scene. Particular success with critics and viewers had a play 'is so (if you think so)' ( 'Cosi e (se vi pare)'), set in 1917
International recognition brings P. play 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' ( 'Se personaggi in cerca d'autore', 1921), which is a huge success in 1922. is on the stages of London and New York. However, the Rome premiere of this play, the most popular of the 44 plays of the playwright, ended in scandal: the audience were offended by the arguments of characters of the relativity of goodness and truth. The premiere of the play 'Henry IV' ( 'Enrico IV'), according to many critics - the top creative VP, also held in 1922
In his mature works of P. develops the theme of the illusory nature of human experience and individual variability, and its characters are deprived of permanent values, their character traits are blurred. In the world of P. identity is relative, but the truth - only what is happening at the moment. Writer stripped of his characters masks, disenchant, meticulously researched their intelligence and personality. P. was greatly influenced by the theory of the subconscious, put forward by the French experimental psychologist Alfred Binet. Even when he was the teacher of the University of Bonn P. acquainted with the works of the German idealist philosophers. In the instability of the human psyche and the writer was convinced from my own experience over 15 years of caring for a mentally ill wife.
Over time, P. becomes not only a famous playwright, but no less well-known director, exercising its own staging of plays. In 1923, Mr.. writer enters into a fascist party and with the support of Mussolini create the Rome National Arts Theater, who in 1925 ... 1926. touring Europe, and in 1927. - South America. Lead actress, Marta Abba, for the playwright becomes a constant source of inspiration. Despite government subsidies, the theater eventually begins to experience serious financial difficulties, and in 1928. troupe disbanded.
According to some researchers, P. behaved as a collaborator with the Nazis, trimmer. In defense of the writer should say, . that he did not once publicly declared his apolitical, . in some cases have been critical of the fascist party, . in connection with which after the closure of the National Arts Theater had difficulties with the production of his plays in Italy,
. Some time P. lives in Paris and Berlin and travels a lot and in 1933, at the personal request of Mussolini, returns home.
In 1934, Mr.. P. received the Nobel Prize for Literature 'for the creative courage and ingenuity to revive the drama and the performing arts'. In his speech, Per Halstrem, a member of the Swedish Academy noted that 'the most remarkable feature of the art P. lies in his almost magical ability to make a psychological analysis of a good play '. In reply, P. explained their creativity 'love and respect for life, without which it would be impossible to transfer the bitter disappointments, hard experience, the wounds and the mistakes of innocence, that give depth and value of our experience'.
P. died in Rome on 10 December 1936, according to his last will, the funeral took place without a public ceremony, the ashes of the writer was buried at his home in Sicily.
. Although the writer's novels have received enough appreciation for the critics, the greatest contribution to the literature P
. introduced as a playwright, had retreated from the traditional form and put forward new topics and challenges. American critic Martin Esslin compared the impact of revolutionary ideas P. in the human psyche 'with the influence on the physics of the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein', . and American scholar Robert Brustayn explained, . What do the innovative spirit of the plays 'Six Characters in Search of an Author', . 'Each in his own way' ( 'Ciascuno a suo modo', . 1924) and 'Today, we improvise' ( 'Questa sera si recita a soggetto', . 1930): 'In these plays tricks realistic theater, . where the actors seem to be real people, . decorations are issued for this house, . and invented events - in fact occurred, . longer used,
. Now the scene - a scene, actors - are actors, and even the spectators who had been silent witnesses' conspiracy ', are now full members of the theatrical action'. According to the American critic and director Eric Bentley, 'P. portrayed the agony of intellect with a sense of transition from one to another ...'.
Creativity P. often viewed as the result of psychological inquiry, begun in the plays of Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. In turn, P. influenced European playwrights such as Jean Anouilh, Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet. Brustayn said the impact of P. on Eugene O'Neill, Edward Albee and Harold Pinter. 'From one of this list - notices Brustayn - it can be concluded that P. - Is one of the most influential playwrights of our time '.