ENGL 314 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Luigi Pirandello, Fourth Wall
Document Summary
Was a sicilian playwright born 1867, he was very successful during his lifetime. He was a professor of linguistic, from 1901 started writing novels and stories. Something about the area in sicily that he grew up was called "chaos" and it affected his thinking. It was a desolate place to live, was an economically depressed area, a lot of poverty and suffering surrounded him in his neighbourhood. He had a bleak philosophy on life - "life is like an enormous puppet show without connection or rationale" Two concepts that come to mind when thinking about this play: alienation and trauma. First performed in 1921, the italian audience rioted when the play was first performed. Any work of art either implicitly or explicitly makes a contract with its audience, this play seemed to have broken the implicit contract it made with its audience. This play broke a metaphorical fourth wall and involved the audience in a way.
