ABSTRACT
In this book I aimed to question the idea of a linear movement from 'L'umorismo' to the climactic text Uno, nessuno e centomila, and thus' undermine ideas of a simple chronological progression in Pirandellian narrative: it may seem that I have merely reconstituted this diachronic movement, as my study ends with a reading of Uno, nessuno e centomila, interpreted in the light of narrative processes derived from 'L'umor-ismo'. However, my reading of the metanarrative nature of umorismo posits the tropes of metaphor and epiphany as narrative processes which are emblematic of Pirandello's fragmented and repetitive texts as a whole, and which, as tropes which contain and interrogate ideas of repetition and originality, enact a continual movement between past and present. 'L'umorismo' should therefore be read not as a 'source' text which 'explains' Pirandello's narrative, but rather as a site where the issues which criss-cross Pirandello's narrative intersect: itself a text that was rewritten, 'L'umorisino's fictions of theory and theories of fiction show that the communication or 'intercambiabilità' between Pirandello texts ensures that progression is always undercut by regression.
