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ERIC Number: ED099922
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1974-Aug
Pages: 12
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Theatre of the Grotesque.
Longman, Stanley V.
The Theatre of the Grotesque, a dramatic movement in Italy from 1916 until 1930, grew directly out of Pirandello's concept of "umorismo," the painful laugh accompanying the tragic sense of bewilderment at the incongruities and cruelties of life. Growing first of all from a reaction against positivism and its theatrical counterpart, naturalism, the Theatre of the Grotesque was also an extension of the Crepuscular movement in poetry. Three syndromes which enter grotesque plays in various combinations are aptly expressed in the titles of three of the grotesques: for the marionette syndrome, Rosso di San Secondo's "Oh Marionettes, What Passion!"; for the mirror syndrome, Luigi Antonelli's "The Man Who Met Himself"; and for the multiple reality syndrome, Luigi Pirandello's "Right You Are (If You Think You Are)." These Pirandellian syndromes have continued and have been enriched in the absurdist and existentialist drama which followed the Theatre of the Grotesque. (JM)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A