Analysis of the Crisis of “I” in the Pirandello’s Short Stories: Taking “The Handcart” as an Example

Abstract

Literary modernism, or modernist literature, has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction. Italian literature is always an important force in the field of European literature. Not only in the Renaissance but also in nowadays, there are a lot of famous Italian writers who had contributed a lot to the world’s literature such as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Italo Calvino, Alberto Moravia and Pirandello. The last one’s play is famous in the whole world, and received the Nobel prize. Pirandello is popular non only in Europa but also in China, nowadays, a lot of Chinese researchers focus on his plays, but his short stories are also important and have a great value to study. This paper will focus on one Pirandello’s short story: the handcart, to talk about the crisis of “I” in all the works of Pirandello.