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 Giovanni Carmelo Verga di Fontanabianca (; 2 September 1840 – 27 January 1922) was an Italian realist ('' verista'') writer, best known for his depictions of life in his native Sicily, especially the short story and later play ''Cavalleria ...

, both having been born in the province of Catania within a year of each other. He was also one of the first Italian authors influenced by the works of

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...

, 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 Mineo ( scn, Minìu, Greek: ''Menaion'' and ''Μεναί'', Latin: ''Menaeum'' and ''Menaenum'') is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Catania, part of Sicily. It lies southwest of Catania, from Ragusa, from Gela, and from ...

, 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 Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

as the secretary of the Secret Committee of Insurrection in

, 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 Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

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 A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

, 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 (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

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 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

'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 Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

and

stylistics Stylistics, a branch of applied linguistics, is the study and interpretation of texts of all types and/or spoken language in regard to their linguistic and tonal style, where style is the particular variety of language used by different individu ...

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 Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also b ...

on November 29, 1915, shortly after Italy entered the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Example of his poetry in Sicilian

''Sta notti...'' (Tonight)

References

* ''Arba Sicula'', Vol. 2, 1980 (source of both the poem in Sicilian and the English translation).

External links

* * *
Capuana's works
text with concordances and frequency list

* Answers.com article o
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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Capuana, Luigi 1839 births 1915 deaths People from Mineo Kingdom of the Two Sicilies people Writers from Sicily Journalists from Sicily Italian male journalists