City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2017 Pirandello Proto-Modern: A New Reading of L’Esclusa Bradford Masoni The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2330 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact:
[email protected] PIRANDELLO PROTO-MODERN: A NEW READING OF L’ESCLUSA by Bradford A. Masoni A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 2017 © 2017 BRADFORD A. MASONI All Rights Reserved ii Pirandello Proto-Modern: A New Reading of L’Esclusa by Bradford A. Masoni This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ____________________ ________________________________ Date Paolo Fasoli Chair of Examining Committee ____________________ _____________________________ Date Giancarlo Lombardi Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Paolo Fasoli Giancarlo Lombardi William Coleman THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Pirandello Proto-Modern: A New Reading of L’Esclusa by Bradford A. Masoni Advisor: Paolo Fasoli Luigi Pirandello’s first novel, L’Esclusa, written in 1893, but not published in its definitive edition until 1927, straddles two literary worlds: that of the realistic style of the Italian veristi, and something new, a style and approach to narrative that anticipates the theory of writing Pirandello lays out in his long essay L’Umorismo, as well as the kinds of experimental writing that one associates with early-20th-century modernism in general, and with Pirandello’s later work in particular.