Luigi Pirandello (1867 - 1936)
Related: theatre of the absurd - Italian literature - theatre - fourth wall - self-reference
Key work: Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921)
"It is not surprising that it should be a dramatist such as Pirandello who, in characterizing the film, inadvertently touches on the very crisis in which we see the theatre. Any thorough study proves that there is indeed no greater contrast than that of the stage play to a work of art that is completely subject to or, like the film, founded in, mechanical reproduction". --Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1935
Biography
Luigi Pirandello (June 28, 1867 – December 10, 1936) was an Italian writer and novelist, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934.Pirandello's best-known work is Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author). Equally notable, if not as often performed, are the plays Così è (se vi pare) (Right You Are (If You Think You Are)) and Ciascuno a suo modo (Each in His Own Way). Another play, Come tu mi vuoi (As You Desire Me), was adapted for a 1932 Hollywood film starring Greta Garbo. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Pirandello [May 2004]