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. The novel’s living in both worlds, however, makes it an interesting and problematic text. First, it gives readers insight into the trajectory of Pirandello’s work as he develops as a writer, and particularly as he shifts the focus of his output from prose fiction to theatre. Second, and much more broadly, L’Esclusa is an important transitional text in the history of modern European literature, not so much because the novel itself made waves or wielded a great deal of direct influence, but rather because it serves as an indicator of a change that was already beginning to be made manifest in the works of a number of late-19th-century novelists, referred to for the purposes of this dissertation as “proto-modernists.” In this translation dissertation, I have executed two different, but related, projects. The first part of the dissertation comprises a new critical evaluation of L’Esclusa, linking it explicitly to both the theoretical principles aligned with Pirandello’s later output and with early 20th-century literary modernism in general. In this part of the dissertation, I also explore the linguistic and stylistic features of the text that look forward to the kind of techniques that will be associated with the later movement. The second part constitutes a complete translation of the novel from Italian into English, prefaced by an in-depth examination of the currents in Translation Studies that informed my translation practice, as well as the features of this text that proved to be especially notable or problematic on this front. L’Esclusa has too long been overlooked and, in English, it is out-of-print. It is the aim of this dissertation both to extend the theoretical analysis of L’Esclusa that connects it to Pirandello’s later writing and to literary modernism, and to make this important text available to readers in English. iv Preface My first encounter with the works of Luigi Pirandello was as a 19-year-old undergraduate spending a year abroad studying at the University of Bologna. The American students in the program were studying an impressive array of subjects, but several of us had opted to take a modern Italian literature course. The professor, genuinely excited that so many foreign students were interested in his subject, decided to create an alternative syllabus just for us. I no longer have the book list, but it amounted to a sort of “greatest hits” of late- 19th- and 20th-century Italian literature, ending with Calvino. The centerpiece of this list was Pirandello’s Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore [Six Characters in Search of an Author], and although I considered myself well read, was interested in experimental literature, and had even heard of Pirandello, neither my classmates nor I had any idea what we were in for when we began to try to make sense of it. We would meet in one of our squalid student apartments to drink cheap red wine, read the text aloud, and share thoughts, trying to decipher Pirandello’s work. What did he mean when he said that some of the characters were not people, but were, in fact, characters, whose author “…non volle poi, o non poté materialmente, metter[li] al mondo dell’arte” [“…no longer wished, or wasn’t able, to put (them) materially into a work of art”] (Sei personaggi 14)? Why did the “character” characters in the play seem so much more compelling and relatable than the “real” characters, or in the words of the character identified only as “Il Padre,” “… più vivi di quelli che respirano e vestano panni! Meno reali, forse; ma più veri!” [“… more alive than those who breathe and wear clothes! Less real, perhaps; but more true!”] (12)? And what was the source of the palpable tension and sadness that permeated so much of the piece, but which was so often interspersed with moments of real comedy? This was the first bona fide literary text that I had read critically in Italian, and I could not have found it more compelling. In my v oral exam with the professor of that class, an exam that was supposed to cover the whole syllabus, we spent the entire time just discussing this one text and its nuances. Just what is it about Pirandello’s writing that makes it so compelling? In the many years since my University of Bologna experience, I have had ample time to reflect on this question and have discovered that some of the answers my undergraduate self might have provided still ring very true for me today. The Luigi Pirandello that I discovered all those years ago had a very specific mission, it seemed: to make his audience, whether spectators or readers, examine the nature of their reality and the nature of their own relationship to it. The guiding principle that I read, and continue to read, in his works is that the systems of reality that we as individuals are compelled to participate in and abide by, and with which we so often come into conflict, are constructs and too often contradict our natural instincts. This Luigi Pirandello is a maverick, a thinker on a mission to expose the true nature of the relationship between the individual and his or her surroundings. These are ideas that many of us find naturally compelling, and that seem to become more and more relevant and applicable to our own lives as teachers and students, as members of families, as employees, as parishioners, as citizens of states, and as human beings living in societies, the older we get and the more we have experienced of the world. Pirandello is not just interested in making a simple statement; he seems intent on exploring the often simultaneously comic and tragic implications of the nuances of our complex relationship to reality. In his works, he explores the subjective nature of the individual experience. He puts forward the idea of the individual self not being a perfectly realized, completed whole, but a succession of distinct, if overlapping, individuals whose characteristics depend upon their circumstance and whose real nature is always hidden beneath a mask, as a work continually in progress. He lays bare our basic inability to tie the loose ends of our experience together into a complete, tidily resolved story. In short, this is heady stuff for undergraduate literature students and mature vi readers alike, and all the more so given the innovative manner in which these messages are delivered: a style that respects the reader’s or spectator’s intelligence, that makes him or her work for the message, and that does not condescend or pull punches. These aspects of Pirandello’s writing have proven fundamental to my understanding of literature, but they have also been instrumental in forming my own view of reality. In both the translation and academic investigation of L’Esclusa that follow, I have tried to capture and transmit the virtuosity and modernity of Pirandello’s writing, as well as the excitement that his writing instills in me as a reader and spectator of his work. In this sense, what follows has been a labor of love. *** This project would not have been possible without the support of many, many people. First I would like to thank my indefatigable advisor, Paolo Fasoli, for braving this project with me, and for taking a chance on a student he had never met. But also for responding to emails at all hours, for using his mobile data when the lines were down in Italy, and for reading drafts while on holiday. Without his wisdom and encouragement, this project would never have gotten off the ground, much less have been completed. I would like to thank the members of my committee, Giancarlo Lombardi and William Coleman, for their support over these long years, and especially Professor Coleman for helping ease my way back into the Program after many years of absence.