Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960), poet, novelist, playwright and
composer would become one of the literary giants of the twentieth
century. The father of magic realism in Italy, he was associated
with the futurist avant-garde and then launched his own influential
literary movement, Novecento. Editor and creator of various
journals, he collaborated with some of the greatest writers of his
day, from James Joyce to Luigi Pirandello. Bontempelli was a
prominent fascist intellectual and largely for this reason is today
a controversial, little studied and seldom translated writer.
Patricia Gaborik strikes out at this problem by presenting here an
extensive introduction on the thought and legacy of this figure and
complete translations of three of his major plays: "Watching the
Moon" (1916), "Stormcloud" (1935) and "Cinderella" (1942).
Bontempelli's sense of theatricality was unparalleled, his
characters are bewitching, and Gaborik's translations privilege
both readability and playability, offering these plays the chance
for a robust, English-language life not only on page but also on
stage. In 1953, Bontempelli was awarded the Strega Prize, Italy's
most prestigious literary award. "Watching the Moon" is a densely
layered response to the era's avant-gardism, with traces of
symbolism, expressionism and futurism. It presents the story of a
woman who travels to the literal ends of the earth in an attempt to
rescue her (dead) daughter, whom she believes has been kidnapped by
the moon. "Stormcloud," where a nimbus is responsible for misery
and destruction, points fingers at individual behaviors and
especially at personal egotism in the face of love and death. It is
a strange and compelling exemplar of magic realism for the stage.
"Cinderella," fearless, radical and subversive, adds to
Bontempelli's slate of strong and complex female characters, still
sometimes a rare commodity on the stage. First English translation.
Introduction, notes, select bibliography, illustrated. 198 pages.
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