Theory, praxis and puppet plays in Cervantes and Pirandello

Abstract

Constantly throughout his literary career, the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello (1867- 1936) had always seen in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) a precursory inspiration of his own poetics. This paper delves into the complex nature of this literary influence, and particularly into the nature of the theoretical premonitions which Cervantes’ Don Quixote has pragmatically bequeathed to Pirandello’s oeuvre. After a brief glance at various testimonies on Cervantes enunciated by Pirandello himself during his lifetime, this study tackles the meaning of two emblematic passages in Pirandello’s long essay L’umorismo, in which he traces the development of his very own poetics by linking it to Cervantes’ comic element in Don Quixote. Finally, the paper shall embark on a textual and thematic analysis of two emblematic puppet play episodes portrayed in Don Quixote and in Pirandello’s novel The Late Mattia Pascal.