Nine Sicilian Plays by Luigi Capuana

Santi V. Buscemi is the son of Sicilian immigrants from the province of Agrigento. Professor Buscemi teaches English at Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ. He has published translations of Capuana's II Marchese di Roccaverdina and C 'era una volta, as well as several of the author's plays and short stories in academic journals. Professor Buscemi earned his B.A. at St. Bonaventure University and completed graduate work at the University of Tennessee. The father of Italian naturalism (verismo), Luigi Capuana (1839-1915) was a major critic and writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While an important concern for the veristi is the effects of the natural, social, and economic environments on the individual, Capuana also demonstrates an astute understanding of psychology, providing incisive portraits of individuals assaulted by the forces of an inimical universe. Committed to regionalism, Capuana includes characters from a variety of social classes and geographies. In the preface to this volume, he argues that the way to create an Italian theater is through regional, dialect theaters. As such, he helped make possible a national theater, which reached its apex in Pirandello to abandon poetry for fiction and drama!

Foreword by Luigi Bonaffini. Acknowledgements. Translator's Introduction. Glossary of Sicilian Forms of Address. Author's Preface. The Spell (Malia). CavaleriPidagna. For Spite (Ppilucurrivu). Good People (Bona Genre). The Interrogation ('Ntirrugatoriru). Cumparaticu. Riricchia. In Vain (Ammatula!). The Matchmaker (Lu paraninfu).