Daniela Bini. Office hours in HRH 2.122: Tu. 12:30

ITL 381
Narrative/Dramatic Discourse in Pirandello
Fall 2009
Instructor: Daniela Bini. Office hours in HRH 2.122: Tu. 12:30-1:30. & by
appointment; office phone: 471-5995; home: 477-8649
It was certainly his plays that brought Luigi Pirandello world fame and the Nobel Prize in
1934. George Bernard Shaw considered him the most original playwright of the time, and
his revolutionary theatrical ideas influenced not only European authors such as Ionesco,
Artaud, Beckett, Brecht and Durrenmatt, but reverberated on the other side of the Atlantic
in the works of writers like Eugene O'Neill and Thornton Wilder. Already during his life,
Pirandello's plays were being translated and performed successfully on Broadway. Yet
his personal relation with the theatre was for decades greatly troubled. Already as a child
he was attracted to the theatre where he went evening after evening. At the same time,
however, he considered theatre an art form inferior to fiction, as he repeated in various
theoretical essays and interviews. Actors and stage directors were the culprits, because
they necessarily betrayed the world of the artist. Even after his famous Six Characters in
Search of an Author and Henry IV made Pirandello the world's most original, though
controversial, playwright, his feelings about theatre as a second-rate art form still
remained. It took the work of some of the leading stage directors of the time, like the
French Pitoeff and the German Reinhardt, but above all the momentous encounter with
his muse, the actress Marta Abba, to make Pirandello revise his ideas on theatre.
We will read from his theoretical essays, narrative and plays to uncover a more
profound and basic issue that lay at the bottom of Pirandello's change — a philosophical
issue: the paradox that theatre, precisely because of its constant change through various
performances and different productions, was the art form closest to life, which Pirandello
had defined as "constant flux." Dramatic art was thus capable of escaping the
fossilization of the written word to which narrative instead was doomed.
The class will be taught in Italian.
Grading Policy
The final grade will be determined by class participation and discussion (25%); one oral
report (15%); and one final paper of 15 to 20 pages (70%).
Texts
Selection from Pirandello's theoretical essays and short stories (Packet of xeroxed
copies). Novels: Il fu Mattia Pascal; Suo marito, Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio
operatore; Uno, nessuno e centomila. Plays: La patente; Il berretto a sonagli; Il gioco
delle parti; Così è (se vi pare); Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore; Enrico IV; Ciascuno a
suo modo; Questa sera si recita a soggetto; Come tu mi vuoi; Trovarsi; Non si sa
come. Molti testi di Pirandello sono on line:
http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/p/pirandello/index.htm
AUGUST
Thursday 27
SEPTEMBER
Martedì 1
Giovedì 3
Martedì 8
Giovedì 10
1-3.
Martedì 15
Giovedì 17
Martedì 22
Giovedì 24
Martedì 29
OCTOBER
Giovedì 1
Martedì 6
Giovedì 8
Martedì 13
sonagli
Giovedì 15
Martedì 20
Giovedì 22
Martedì 27
Giovedì 29
NOVEMBRE
Martedì 3
Giovedì 5
Martedì 10
Giovedì 12
SILLABO
Introduzione al corso
Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904), (1-8)
Mattia Pascal (9-13)
Mattia Pascal, finire
Suo marito (1911) Giustino Roncella nato Boggiolo(
1941),
Giustino Roncella, 4-6
Giustino Roncella, finire
Si gira (1914)(Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore, (1925), 1-3
Quaderni, 4-5
Quaderni finire
Uno nessuno e centomila (1925, ma cominciato nel 1910)
Uno nessuno e centomila (finire)
“Illustratori, attori, traduttori;” “L’umorismo,” “Teatro e
letteratura”
"La patente," (novella e dramma) ”La verità” e Il berretto a
VIDEO: IL BERRETTO A SONAGLI
“La signora Frola e il signor Ponza, suo genero” Così è (se vi pare)
(1917) VIDEO: COSI' E' SE VI PARE
“Quando si è capito il gioco” e Il gioco delle parti (1918) metà
VIDEO: IL GIOCO DELLE PARTI
Il gioco delle parti, finire; novelle: “Colloqui coi personaggi" "La
tragedia di un personaggio
Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (1921) con Prefazione; metà
VIDEO: SEI PERSONAGGI
Sei personaggi, finire. Enrico IV (1921); metà
Enrico IV: finire, ENRICO IV, FILM di BELLOCCHIO
Discussione Film
Ciascuno a suo modo (1923)
Questa sera si recita a soggetto (1930); metà.
VIDEO: QUESTA SERA SI RECITA A SOGGETTO
Questa sera (finire); Come tu mi vuoi (metà)
Come tu mi vuoi (finire)
Trovarsi
Martedì 17
Giovedì 19
Martedì 24
THANKSGIVING
DECEMBER
Martedì 1
Non si sa come
Giovedì 3
Riepilogo e Course Evaluation