Autenticazione esperienziale di un’opera di Pirandello attraverso processi di decostruzione e ritestualizzazione. Un’analisi comparativa di Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore e Characters in Search of a Country

Abstract

This article explores the play Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (Six characters in search of an author) by Luigi Pirandello in a parallel analysis with Characters in search of a country, a reinterpretation staged by the New York’s theatre company Kairos Italy Theatre.  The two texts have been read taking into account the Decostructionist theories (Derrida 1978, De Man 1979, Culler 1988), considering Deconstruction as a ‘mode of reading’ (Culler 1988, p. 77). Following a preliminary structuralist analysis, it is clear that it is not simple to apply the Structuralist theories to this text because of its innovative nature. Pirandello’s theatre is not meant to be kept within the framework of Structuralism. For this reason Sei personaggi is particularly appropriate for a deconstructive reading and new interpretation, activating a deferment of meaning called “diffèrance”. An example of reinterpretation and recontextualization is, indeed, Characters in search of a country that represents the experience of the six characters within the current context of the migration of a Syrian family escaping war. Starting from a linguistic study of the experience of displacement, discussed in both texts, the focus is the analysis of the words, images and the metaphors used to express the concepts of loss of identity and displacement of the self which, instead, is conveyed not only through language but also through psychological aspects. The study, therefore, shows how the text by Pirandello is suitable not only for a deconstructive process, but also for being proposed in a current context such as the migration.