Pirandello’s “War”.ppt

1、Pirandellos “War”,About the author,Luigi Pirandello(1867-1936) was born in Girgenti, Sicily. He studied philology at Rome and at Bonn and wrote a dissertation(專題論文，學(xué)位論文) on the dialect（方言，土語） of his native town (1891). From 1897 to 1922 he was professor of aesthetics（美學(xué)） and stylistics（風(fēng)格學(xué)） at the R

2、eal Istituto di Magistere Femminile at Rome.,Pirandellos work is impressive by its sheer volume. He wrote a great number of novellas（中篇或短篇小說） which were collected under the title Novelle per un anno (15 vols., 1922-37). Of his six novels the best known are Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904) The Late Mattia

3、Pascal, I vecchi e i giovani (1913) The Old and the Young, Si gira (1916) | Shoot!, and Uno, nessuno e centomila (1926) One, None, and a Hundred thousand.But Pirandellos greatest achievement is in his plays. He wrote a large number of dramas which were published, between 1918 and 1935, under the col

4、lective（共有的） title of Maschere nude Naked Masks.,narration and setting,The story takes place on a train ，going from Fabiano in Italy to Sulmona.,There is very little description of setting-the auther leaves it up to the imagination of the reader or their personal knowledge of Italian country side.Na

5、rration is in the third person .The story is told mostly through the conversation of the passangers.,Conflict and Plot,Primary external conflict: man vs. society Primary internal conflict: man vs. self,man vs. Society,The story takes place during World I .Society say this was necessary. Maybe it was

6、 ,however,the families of the dead may disagree.,Man vs. Self:,Most of the people in this rail car have sons fighting in the war. They tell themselves that their country needs their sacrifice.,Characters,The characters are never named.They are each given a brief description the fat man ,the husband,

7、the wife ,etc.We get to know them through their conversation,each of them have different values but their concern for their family fighting in the war gives them common ground. They are separated by their attemps to out to do each others suffering.,Language and Style,The language used here is very p

8、lain, it is very true to what any of us would use when talking to strangers on a train.There is almost no use of metaphor. The passangers tend to be very literal and concrete in their descriptions. Narrator uses imagery to great effect when describing the characters ,he does it in few words.,Summary and Criticism,This is a world of crumbling values ,made all the more vapid beacause of the intense desire ti rationalize attitudes and live in a mist of ilusions .-Laird Kleinn-Ahlbrandt,Theme,Throughout the story,the conflict between the ideal and the r