Luigi Pirandello by Susan Bassnett-McGuire (review)

Book Review SUSAN BASSNETT-MCGUIRE. Luigi Pirandello. New York: Grove Press 1983. pp. vii, 190, illustrated. $13·50; $9.95 (PB). In the nearly fifty years since his death in 1936, Luigi Pirandello has certainly come to be acknowledged as one of the creators ofmodernist drama. His self-reflexive theater may seem commonplace today, because of his many successors and imitators; yet Pirandello not only set the standard for metatheater in this century, but demonstrated how extremes of passion and intellect could coexist and reinforce each other within the same work. Unfortunately, Pirandello is still known only in bits and pieces by the Englishspeaking world. Many of his plays remain untranslated; those that are available in English often exist in pitifully outdated and/or incomplete versions that are virtually worthless theatrically and not much better as dramatic literature. There has been no standard English translation of the entire canon for scholars and directors to consult. Moreover, neither the rhetorical bias ofthe English stage nor the realistic domination of the American theater is especially well suited for the philosophical and moral melodramas the Italian dramatist created. The publication of Susan Bassnett-McGuire's Luigi Pirandello as part of the Grove Press Modem Dramatist series at least ensures the availability once again ofa paperback introductory volume to Pirandello's work. Although not as complete as previous introductory studies by Walter Starkie and Domenico Vittorini, both out of print for some time, this book does summarize intelligently the necessary biographical, sociopolitical, and theatrical background material before presenting analyses of sixteen full-length and five one-act plays, grouped thematically and formally rather than chronologically. Whereas the obligatory plot summaries may frustrate readers already familiar with the plays, the author does interpret while describing and then makes connections between the plays, creating a sense of Pirandello's full career as a theater artist. On the whole, Bassnett-McGuire has written a sensible and well-balanced book. She Book Review recognizes Pirandello's importance as a theatrical innovator but does not slight his vital relationship to the Italian theater, both ofhis own day and afterward. Thus, she describes what happens in Tonight We Improvise as Pirandello debating with himself about the nature of theater; but when she discusses The Mountain Giants, Pirandello's final play left unfinished at his death, she not only cites Giorgio Strehler's famous 1967 Milan production, but remarks the possibility that Eleanora Duse was the prototype for one of the central characters. The author's approach to the literary aspects of the plays is very much in the mainstream of present-day Pirandello criticism. Bassnett-McGuire acknowledges the importance of Pirandello's essay L'umorismo (On Humor) to his dramaturgy. She explores the various expressions of the stagellife dichotomy in the plays without slighting the personal and moral dimensions underestimated by previous generations of critics. For the most part, then, this is a thoughtful, clearly set forth analysis; it may not startle with its originality, but nonetheless it skillfully combines historical research and critical analysis. The problems arise when Bassnett-McGuire attempts to incorporate certain ideas and interpretations that require more explication than she can give them. Sometimes this reader merely wanted certain intriguing but underdeveloped thoughts to be expanded. For example, at the close of her chapter on the theater trilogy plays, Bassnett-McGuire writes that, "In his insistence on theatre as a dialectical set of relationships Pirandello might well be described as a theatre semiotician.. ,. " Yet the few sentences that follow do not really make a case for this assertion in any cogent manner. In her analysis of certain plays, Bassnett-McGuire also considers Pirandello's use of "keywords" that linguistically structure the works, but she fails to use this technique consistently enough for it to be of real value. Even more problematic are instances where the critic attacks the Italian playwright from a sociopolitical stance. She comes down much harder than most Pirandello commentators on his Fascist entanglement, claiming that his politics directly affected his art. Yet even though she reiterates this point several times, the argument is never made with the necessary cogency and completeness. I must admit, too, that I find her feminist attack on...