Luigi Pirandello (Agrigento 28 June 1867 – Rome 10 December 1936) was an Italian playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage". Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners for Theatre of the Absurd.