Effetti d’un influsso (mai) interrotto: la presenza di Capuana nell’ultima novella di Pirandello

Abstract

The essay aims to focus the influence that Luigi Capuana, “verista” inclined to the occult’s fascination, had on Effetti di un sogno interrotto (1936), the last Pirandello’s tale, where dreams become reality, the fantastic becomes habit and ghosts come to life. In an atmosphere hanging between sleep and wakefulness, weaving together Eros and Thanatos, this tale – where also Théophile Gautier’s influence is remarkable – especially shows the way Pirandello conceived literary creation as irrational, by following Capuana’s dictates in Spiritismo? (1884) and after, covertly, in L’allucinato (1897). The same aim pervades I giganti della montagna, where the ancient influences of theosophy and spiritism, formerly inherited by Capuana and afterwards enriched by the new cinematography techniques, emerge again for the last time.