I Rapporti tra Unamuno E Pirandello Nella Critica Letteraria Contemporanea by Annamaria Kelly (review)

I RAPPORTI TRA UNAMUNO E PIRANDELLO NELLA CRITICA LETTERARIA CONTEMPORÁNEA BY ANNAMARIA KELLY (Palermo: S. F. Flaccovio, Editore, 1976, 61 pages.) The work is an in-depth critical study of the thematic and biographical closeness of Pirandello and Unamuno as viewed by their modern literary critics. Kelly painstakingly demonstrates how these similarities brought Pirandello and Unamuno to expound parallel philosophical messages and how the critics elaborated on their innovative theories. The author sees these two writers as two tormented souls who independently observed similar social fractures and postulated their respective profound theories on these occurrences culminating in a simultaneous invective against "the rational system of modern society." (P. 12). On "the problem oftruth,"(Ch. I), she points out how both writers despised pure logic and intelligence as expounded by positivism in philosophy and Realism-Naturalism in literature. On "the problem of the personality," (Ch. II), moving from the question, "who am I?" Unamuno and Pirandello inadvertedly touch on the perennial contradiction common to all men, "the uncertainty of our destiny and of our origin," (p. 2 1). On "the problem of the woman," (Ch. Ill), both writers focus on the aspect ofmaternity which is seen as the ultimate function of women in a positive society. In Ch. IV, "the social problem," the individual is seenas a victim ofsociety and a prisoner of his dissentions and meaningless terminology such as patriotism , religion, and morality. On "appearances and reality," (Ch. V), both conclude that: "appearance is more significant than reality," (p. 37). In Ch. VI, "from doubt to humor," both Pirandello and Unamuno sustain the thesis that laughter and sadness are born out of the interplay of appearances resulting from the contrast between dream and reality. On"the authonomy ofthe characters ," (final chapter), Kelly's conclusion is that both writers were indefatigable proponents of the total independence of the creating artist with respect to his "living" literary character. Despite the inconsistent styleadopted by the printers with regards to footnotes and bibliographical entries, Annamaria Kelly has given us in eloquent yet succinct language a much needed comparative study of two major writers of our century. ERASMO G. GERATO* •ERASMO G. GERATO is an Associate Professor of French and Italian in the Department of Modern Languages of The Florida State University in Tallahassee. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW75 ...