La crisi moderna come visione: Pirandello, Szentkuthy ed il modernismo

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relation of Pirandello and Szentkuthy with the phenomenon of modernity. The two artists – despite their stylistic and genre differences – analyse the problems of the modern existential crisis in a very similar way. They interpret the crisis through powerful rhetorical images, and the importance of vision shows the deficiency of theoretical language and thinking. The vision becomes a method to examine the inner world. A certain parody of the philosophical language and systemizing attitude helps us understand the futility of fixed theories. The paper mainly examines some of Pirandello’s narrative works, his noted essay on the modern crisis, Arte e coscienza d’oggi, his last and incomplete play, I giganti della montagna and Szentkuthy’s poetics in the 1930s through some of his novels. The analysis and the comparison will perhaps demonstrate some interesting common motives in the modern interpretation of literary vision.