Luigi Capuana
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2018) |
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Italian. (March 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Luigi Capuana | |
---|---|
Born | Mineo, Two Sicilies | 28 May 1839
Died | 29 November 1915 Catania, Sicily, Italy | (aged 76)
Occupation | Author, journalist |
Luigi Capuana (May 28, 1839 – November 29, 1915) was an Italian author and journalist and one of the most important members of the verist movement (see also verismo (literature)). He was a contemporary of Giovanni Verga, both having been born in the province of Catania within a year of each other.[1] He was also one of the first Italian authors influenced by the works of Émile Zola, French author and creator of naturalism. Capuana also wrote poetry in Sicilian, of which an example appears below.
He was the author of plays (Garibaldi, Vanitas Vanitatum, Parodie, Semiritmi), stories (Studi sulla letteratura contemporanea, Per l'arte, Gli "ismi" contemporanei, Cronache letterarie, Il teatro italiano contemporaneo), novels (Giacinta, Marchese di Roccaverdina, La sfinge, Giovanna Guglicucci: o le pareti del labirinto, Profumo, Rassegnazione) and various other theatrical works.
Biography
Origins and schooling
Luigi Capuana was born in Mineo, in the Province of Catania. His family was wealthy, and owned property in the area. He attended the local school.
In 1851 he enrolled in the Royal College of Bronte, Catania, but left after only 2 years because of bad health. However, he continued to study by teaching himself.
After graduating he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at Catania in 1857. He abandoned this in 1860 in order to take part in Garibaldi's Risorgimento as the secretary of the Secret Committee of Insurrection in Mineo, and later as the chancellor of the nascent civic council.
"Literary Adventures"
In 1861 Capuana released the legendary drama Garibaldi in three cantos, published in Catania by Galatola. In 1864 he settled in Florence to begin his "literary adventure": he met, and kept in touch with, the most notable Italian authors of the era (including Aleardo Aleardi); he published his first critical essays in the "Italian Review" in 1865; he became the theatre critic for "Nation" in 1866; he published, serially in a Florentine daily in 1867, his first novella, entitled Dr. Cymbalus which took Dumas fils' La boîte d'argent as a model. He would stay in Florence until 1868.
Return to Sicily
In 1868 Capuana returned to Sicily planning a brief stay, but his father's death and economic hardship anchored him to the island. He worked as a school inspector and later as counselor of Mineo until he was elected as mayor of the town.
During these years he learned more about Hegel's idealist philosophy. He was especially inspired by "Dopo la Laurea", an essay by positivist and Hegelian doctor Angelo Camillo De Meis, who had developed a theory on the evolution and death of literary genres.
Catania: work at university and death
In 1902 Capuana moved to Catania to lecture lexicography and stylistics at the local university.
His last literary works included "Coscienze" (1905), "Nel paese di Zàgara" (1910), and "Gli Americani di Rabbato" (1912).
Capuana died in Catania on November 29, 1915, shortly after Italy entered the First World War.
Example of his poetry in Sicilian
Sta notti... (Tonight)
Sicilian | English |
---|---|
Sta notti mi sunnai quattru funtani, | Tonight I dreamt of four fountains |
Quattru pedi d'aranciu a lu ciuriri; | Of four orange trees about to blossom; |
Vitti li stiddi scinniri e acchianari, | I saw the stars descend and ascend; |
Vitti lu suli comu un lebbru jiri; | I saw the sun run like a hare; |
Vitti n'aquila fina a lu vulari, | I saw a fine eagle ready to soar, |
Vitti lu cori tò npettu viniri; | I saw your heart come into my breast; |
Ca siddu mi putieva arrisbigghiari, | And could I have awakened, |
Nun ti l'avissi cchiù lassatu jiri. | I would never have let you go. |
References
- Arba Sicula, Vol. 2, 1980 (source of both the poem in Sicilian and the English translation).
External links
- Works by Luigi Capuana at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Luigi Capuana at Internet Archive
- Works by Luigi Capuana at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Capuana's works: text with concordances and frequency list
- Text Frequencies of "Profumo"[permanent dead link]
- Answers.com article on Luigi Capuana
- Ecco una fiaba musicale illustrata un po' speciale di Luigi Capuana, che chiunque abbia un dispositivo android (e-book reader, telefonino, tablets,...) può scaricare gratuitamente... Di seguito il link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.t15.gradiccioli.titirititi&hl=it
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- Articles needing additional references from March 2018
- All articles needing additional references
- Articles needing translation from Italian Wikipedia
- Articles with Project Gutenberg links
- Articles with Internet Archive links
- Articles with LibriVox links
- All articles with dead external links
- Articles with dead external links from January 2018
- Articles with permanently dead external links
- Articles with FAST identifiers
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with BIBSYS identifiers
- Articles with BNE identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with ICCU identifiers
- Articles with J9U identifiers
- Articles with KBR identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with Libris identifiers
- Articles with NDL identifiers
- Articles with NKC identifiers
- Articles with NLA identifiers
- Articles with NLG identifiers
- Articles with NSK identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- Articles with PLWABN identifiers
- Articles with VcBA identifiers
- Articles with CINII identifiers
- Articles with Musée d'Orsay identifiers
- Articles with DBI identifiers
- Articles with DTBIO identifiers
- Articles with Trove identifiers
- Articles with SNAC-ID identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- 1839 births
- 1915 deaths
- People from Mineo
- Kingdom of the Two Sicilies people
- Writers from Sicily
- Journalists from Sicily
- Italian male journalists