LUIGI CAPUANA

Luigi Capuana not only speaks to small, was also distinguished writer, he works for the theater of comedies and dramas dialect as "Malia" and "Paraninfo"; of novels such as "Jacinta" and "The Marquis of Roccavardina," "Homo" and other books of criticism. He was born in Mineo, in the province of Catania, in 1839 into a wealthy landowning family dominated by the figures of Antonio uncles and Mimi, had a happy childhood and a rather traditional education in the context of the bourgeoisie isolana.Nel 1857 joined the faculty of law, university of Catania.

Soon he began to get interested in literature and especially the folk poetry, following the Romantic sensibility, then dominant. The years that immediately followed - until 1863 - were however characterized by the early literary contacts in the city, which undoubtedly comforted him in the immediate choices and directed him toward far removed from the university premises artistic experience. In 1863 he returned to Mineo, where he composed dramas, always the romantic inspiration, then represented by a company of amateur actors actors.

In 1861 he composed a verse drama, Garibaldi, marked by the romantic atmosphere of the time and gave the beginning, after the abandonment of the law school, culminating in an intense poetic activity in the sonnets of vanitatum Vanitas (1863) and the first experiences in ' scope of the Sicilian folklore which had driven the warm friendship of Leonardo Vigo, a tireless collector of Sicilian folk songs.

In 1869, for health reasons, he decided to return to Mineo, you wove an affair with a commoner, by whom he had children in abandoned later. Sicily will remain for seven years, held back by his father's death and the care of his private interests. In 1871 he became a school inspector and is passionately dedicated to the problems of compulsory education; in 1872 he was elected mayor of Mineo and its administrator public activities will be so strong as to make him attribute the deserved label De Pretis of Mineo.

Next to the critic mature makes its way unstoppable narrative provision leads, in some stories, to experimentation with different techniques and be a supporter of contrasting experiences, even if the 'interest in the poetic nature has the upper hand in recent years, contributing to non exact formulation of the sample label of the Italian verismo he never accepted in a sense simplistic.

In 1877 he called by De Meis, and following the example of Verga, abandons again Sicily, this time to Milan, where he seems to concentrate the living culture of the new Italy.

This opens the Milanese period (1877-81) in the life of Capuana. A tireless worker, becomes frequent collaborator of Corriere della Sera and his signature gradually draws the attention of a vast public layer.

Meanwhile, in contact with Scapigliatura and with the current avant-garde post-romantic, greatly expanding its horizon by moving it at European level, especially with the bold approach of his narrative work: he published a collection of short stories of women Profiles (1877) and the first novel Jacinta (1880), a work of far-reaching and net natural setting that will be reduced later to the theater and again published with considerable variations in 1885. They appear in 80 of the first studies on contemporary literature, followed in the short run, in 82, the second series; thus organizes the appearance of militant critic, engaged in the affirmation of aesthetics Hegel and in the battle for the triumph in Italy of the new European poetry: from naturalism Zola psychologism bourgetiano. At the center of the controversy veristic he is fighting for an art that is not foreign to the society of his time, but together it gives great freedom to his thirst for research and the need to experience every street that ensures the formal renewal. With his friend Giovanni Verga becomes one of the tips of the young literature around the two Sicilians it formed a group that has substantial weight in the cultural life of the city.

After a short stay in Mineo, 82 is called to Rome to replace Ferdinando Martini to the direction of The Fanfulla Sunday. The newspaper will remain about two years: a short but intense period that allows profitable meetings: from the Scarfoglio Sommaruga, from Serao to D'Annunzio. Meanwhile it collects a new series of novels (Homo) giving rise to one of the original strands of his narrative experience, the fairy tale, driven on this road from his old passion for folklore and folk poetry and the constant encouragement of his friend Giuseppe Pitre. Saw the light so the collection of fairy tales upon a time (1882), followed by a long series of similar works (The fairyland, The raccontafiabe, Followed to Once upon a time, etc.) And a diligent search in the field of fiction for children and youth, who was to land at a small masterpiece like Scurpiddu (1898), a novella in which the realistic elements are a happy relationship with the fantastic subterranean root.

Since 1884, for several years, he is back in the withdrawal of Mineo, where in 1885 will be re-elected mayor.

LUIGI CAPUANA

BED AND BREAKFAST BAOBAB, Piazza Armerina