Pier Paolo Pasolini Criticism
Pier Paolo Pasolini, born in 1922 in Bologna, stands as a prominent figure in Italian cultural history, renowned for his multifaceted contributions as a poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, filmmaker, critic, and editor. His work, which intricately blends Marxist ideology with spiritual themes, grappled with the socio-political intricacies of post-World War II Italy. Known for his poignant critique of Marxism and religion, Pasolini’s artistic expression was as controversial as it was impactful, exploring societal injustices and critiquing capitalist structures. This is evident in his cinematic debut, Accattone, which examines themes of exploitation and survival, praised for its authenticity rather than technical finesse, as expounded by critics like Robin Bean and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith.
Pasolini's films are celebrated for their daring blend of socialist themes with spiritual elements. His unorthodox approach to filmmaking, often employing non-professional actors, challenges conventional cinematic norms. This is explored in Pier Paolo Pasolini: An Interview with James Blue. His films, such as The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, have been praised for their spiritual depth and innovative reinterpretation of biblical narratives, earning acclaim from critics like Stanley Kauffmann. The film uses a neorealistic style that extends beyond traditional biblical portrayals, which led Maryvonne Butcher to note its profound spiritual insight.
Critical reception of Pasolini’s work extends beyond its artistic execution to encompass political and religious discourse. His works like Edipo Re and Medea juxtapose mythology and contemporary philosophy, reflecting his personal symbolic introspections, as discussed by Robert J. White and Nigel Gearing. His trilogy of films—The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, and The Arabian Nights—showcases his narrative prowess, though not without mixed critical reception due to their risqué content, as analyzed by Alexander Stuart and John Coleman.
Pasolini's literary contributions, particularly his poetry, are celebrated in Italy for their incisive critique and social engagement. His early life experiences and tragedies, such as his father's imprisonment and brother's execution, profoundly shaped his worldview, as seen in his poetic beginnings with Poesie a Casarsa, and later works like Le ceneri di Gramsci, which reflected his Marxist leanings and engagement with Antonio Gramsci's ideas, as explored by Wallace P. Sillanpoa. His poetry evolved into traditional forms like terza rima, highlighting both homage and innovation within Italian literary tradition.
The controversial nature of Pasolini's later works culminates in Salo: 120 Days of Sodom, a film delivering a harrowing vision of Fascist Italy and human degradation, provoking polarized responses, as noted by Robin Wood and Derek Elley. Despite obscenity charges and societal conflict, Pasolini’s work continued to probe themes of political and spiritual disillusionment, blending conservatism and modernity uniquely as appreciated by critics such as Paul Colilli. Tragically, shortly after completing Salo, Pasolini was murdered, leaving behind a legacy of intense, passionate engagement with the complexities of human existence.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Pasolini, Pier Paolo (Vol. 106)
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Greatest Story Ever Told … by a Communist
(summary)
In the following review, Butcher asserts that "The Gospel According to St. Matthew is incomparably the most effective picture ever made on a scriptural theme."
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Pier Paolo Pasolini: An Interview with James Blue
(summary)
In the following interview, Pasolini and Blue discuss Pasolini's unique approach to filmmaking, particularly his use of non-professional actors and his method of creating an "epic-lyric" portrayal in "The Gospel According to St. Matthew," emphasizing authenticity and natural human essence over conventional acting and historical accuracy.
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Ragazzi Will Be Ragazzi, and Sometimes They'll Be Scugnizzi
(summary)
In the following review, Crichton criticizes The Ragazzi, asserting that "there is a sensation of the writing being fashioned because the style is fashionable, that it is an artifice, not an art, a stylization and not a style."
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Gadda, Pasolini, and Experimentalism: Form or Ideology?
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Ragusa compares the works of Pasolini and Carlo Emilio Gadda and explores each writer's relationship with experimentalism.
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Pier Paolo Pasolini: Poetry as a Compensation
(summary)
In the following essay, Bragin discusses examples of Pasolini's work in the genres of the novel, film, and poetry.
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Pier Paolo Pasolini: Biciclettone
(summary)
In the following review, O'Neill discusses Pasolini's Biciclettone as an introduction to the themes and style found in his other novels.
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Not Forgetting the Artist
(summary)
In the following review, the critic states that Pasolini's 'Empirismo eretico' is the record of the intellectual activity of an individual struggling with a protean culture which changed form just as he seemed to be about to comprehend it.
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Pasolini Leaves a Literary Legacy
(summary)
In the following essay, Sarris discusses Pasolini's career and gruesome death.
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Pier Paolo Pasolini's Dialect Poetry
(summary)
In the following essay, O'Neill traces the influences, themes, and stylistic devices of Pasolini's dialect poetry.
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Re-Reading Pasolini's Essays on Cinema
(summary)
In the following essay, de Lauretis asserts that "for Pasolini cinema is precisely writing in images, not to describe (portray) reality or fantasy, but to inscribe them as representations."
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'I Am a Free Man': Pasolini's Poetry in America
(summary)
In the following essay, MacAfee discusses the relationship between Pasolini's poetry and American culture and art.
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Pasolini's Gramsci
(summary)
In the following essay, Sillanpoa analyzes the relationship between Pasolini and the writings of Antonio Gramsci, attempting to qualify the highly personal interpretation that Pasolini attached to Gramsci's example and writings, and demonstrating the complexity of this subjective interpretation.
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Movies and Poems
(summary)
In the following review, White discusses Enzo Siciliano's biography of Pasolini, Pasolini's work, and Pasolini's similarities to Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima.
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Poet, Martyr, Myth
(summary)
In the following review, Stille analyzes Pasolini's relationship with Italian society and politics.
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Pasolini: Complex Life, Bloody Death
(summary)
In the following review, Steele considers a biography of Pasolini written by Enzo Siciliano and a collection of Pasolini's poetry, asserting that understanding Pasolini's work "is a possible, difficult and liberating task."
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Poet into Man
(summary)
In the following review, Thompson discusses Pasolini's Poems and Enzo Siciliano's biography of the poet and filmmaker. As a poet, Pier Paolo Pasolini was an arch-traditionalist; as a man, a 'politikon zoon', he was a radical romantic whom disillusion drove to despair. The man frustrated the poet and forced him, first, to relinquish his traditional means in favour of a freer approach to poetry, and later, to abandon his poetry—ostensibly, at least—for the cinema.
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Boys in Their Mystery
(summary)
In the following review, Robey discusses two of Pasolini's novels, Amado mio and Atti impuri, that were published posthumously and asserts that "The two texts are very close in style and subject-matter … and quite different from the author's later work."
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Les dernières parole d'un impie: Entre-tiens avec Jean Duflot
(summary)
In the following review, Greenberg states that Pasolini's Les dernières parole d'un impie is part autobiography, part analysis, part remembrance, part explanation, part (self-) justification.
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Amado mio
(summary)
In the following review, Fantazzi discusses Pasolini's early novels, Amado mio and Atti impuri. Preceding the completed novella Amado mio is another slightly longer piece, Atti impuri, which lay in more fragmentary state among the writer's papers. It is fitting that they appear together, for Pier Paolo Pasolini had written a single preface for both of them, which is published in an appendix. The tone of these notes by the author is very hesitant and apologetic, pleading for comprehension of the 'abnormal' love presented. In the incomplete pages of the first early reminiscences the author vacillates between the first and third persons in the various drafts, but the editor chooses to use only the first person in a diaristic fashion. The tale is one of ephebic love, idyllic afternoon frolics in the cornfields or along the banks of a river in Friuli. Among the playmates of the protagonist are a priapic shepherd named Bruno, a lad with the very peasant name of Nisiuti and a girl named Dina, who tries in vain to deliver him from his 'diversity.'
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Reading Pasolini Today
(summary)
In the following essay, Greene discusses Enzo Siciliano's Pasolini: A Biography, Paul Willeman's Pier Paolo Pasolini, Beverly Allen's Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Poetics of Heresy, and Pasolini's Poems translated by Norman MacAfee. Greene highlights the unique variety of Pasolini's activities and the different approaches to his work, particularly noting the Italian writers' focus on his character and role in culture and politics. She also addresses the media's portrayal of Pasolini's death and its implications.
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Consumerism Rampant
(summary)
In the following review, Thompson discusses the themes present in Pasolini's Lutheran Letters which he states focuses on the moral state of Italy since Mussolini.
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Pasolini: His Poems, His Body
(summary)
In the following review, Ahern provides an overview of Pasolini's life and poetry.
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A Violent Life
(summary)
In the following review, Rice states that Pasolini's Marxism is evident in his novel A Violent Life, but asserts that in addition to the political overtones, "Tommaso's story has its own profound and cumulative power; his world boils with life created by Pasolini's relentless use of dialogue and vivid detail."
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Focused on the Body
(summary)
In the following review, Brunette lauds John Shepley's translation of Pasolini's Arabian Nights and Other Stories, highlighting Pasolini's multifaceted talents as a theorist, poet, and writer of powerful fiction, particularly in the lush and overripe language of the stories.
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Between Sin and Scandal
(summary)
In the following review, McCarthy discusses what Pasolini's Lettere 1940–1954 reveals about the themes found in his work. This first volume of Pasolini's collected letters covers the period from his undergraduate years, and recounts the apprenticeship, persecution and tribulations of a writer who continues to hypnotize Italian intellectuals. In his Cronologia Nico Naldini has filled in some of the gaps in Enzo Siciliano's biography. Although Siciliano's judgments on Pasolini's life were generally correct, his book lacked detail. Drawing on Pasolini's unpublished diaries, the Quaderni rossi, Naldini provides much information on the Friulan years and in particular on Pasolini's homosexuality.
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Double Trouble
(summary)
In the following review, Armstrong calls Pasolini's Petrolio "maddeningly incoherent and self-contradictory."
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Courting Contradiction
(summary)
In the following review of Petrolio, Eberstadt asserts that "all of Pasolini's most passionate opinions—from the sanctity of poverty to the vileness of heterosexual couples—have been folded together in this messy, harsh austerely intelligent phantasmagoria-cum-political treatise [Petrolio]."
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Greatest Story Ever Told … by a Communist
(summary)
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Pasolini, Pier Paolo (Vol. 20)
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'Accattone'
(summary)
In the following essay, Robin Bean critiques Pasolini's film Accattone for its lack of thematic innovation and argues that despite its stylistic attempts, it fails to convey a compelling reason for audience engagement or to provide a meaningful exploration of its characters' social contexts.
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'Accattone'
(summary)
In the following essay, Nowell-Smith argues that Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Accattone authentically portrays the marginalized underworld of Roman society, despite its technical flaws, and credits Pasolini for his unique approach to depicting complex social and individual relationships through cinema.
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Reviews of New Films: 'Mamma Roma'
(summary)
In the following essay, Robin Bean critiques Pasolini's film Mamma Roma for its portrayal of societal insensitivity towards the impoverished, while acknowledging the film's success in conveying poetic beauty amidst poverty and its broader view of humanity compared to Accattone, despite its sometimes crude imagery.
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In Brief: 'Mamma Roma'
(summary)
In the following essay, Peter John Dyer argues that although "Mamma Roma" may seem melodramatic and arbitrarily developed, Pasolini's film powerfully encapsulates his subjective identification with the latent fatalism of his characters, using unconventional realism and a distinct style to highlight their opportunistic and brutal mental states.
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Pasolini's Passion
(summary)
In the following essay, Stanley Kauffmann praises Pier Paolo Pasolini's film The Gospel According to St. Matthew for its authentic portrayal of Jesus, highlighting Pasolini's commitment to a realistic, neo-realist style that emphasizes Jesus as a man, thus achieving a profound spiritual connection despite its unconventional, atheistic Communist perspective.
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Uccelacci e uccellini
(summary)
In the following essay, Patrick MacFadden analyzes Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Uccelacci e uccellini as a picaresque journey exploring stages of human awareness and social reality, highlighting its aesthetic imperfections yet extolling its artistic depth and sociopolitical implications.
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Pier-Paolo Pasolini: Contestatore
(summary)
In the following essay, Marc Gervais examines Pier Paolo Pasolini's films "Edipo Re" and "Teorema," highlighting Pasolini's ability to blend raw emotional impact with intellectual rigor, while also exploring themes of human vulnerability, existential mystery, and the interplay between Freudian and Marxist interpretations.
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'Teorema' in Premiere at the Coronet
(summary)
In the following essay, Vincent Canby critiques Pasolini's film "Teorema" as a challenging, visually driven parable that invites multiple interpretations, particularly in its portrayal of religious themes and its detachment from emotional continuity, ultimately suggesting that its true message is embedded in its enigmatic and mathematical visual composition.
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Sex: 'Teorema'
(summary)
In the following essay, John Simon critiques Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Teorema as an incoherent and vapid work that fails both as a narrative and a parable, characterized by fragmented non sequiturs and shallow symbolism, ultimately questioning its artistic merit and thematic purpose.
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Pasolini: Rebellion, Art and a New Society
(summary)
In the following essay, Susan Macdonald examines Pasolini's cinematic style as a fusion of philosophical and sacral elements, highlighting his attempt to blend Marxism and religious themes, while critiquing his portrayal of characters as detached and larger-than-life, exemplified in films like Il vangelo secondo Matteo and Edipo Re.
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'Theorem'
(summary)
In the following essay, Peter Whitehead interprets Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Theorem as a critique of the family unit and its limitations in providing spiritual and existential fulfillment, suggesting that individuals are compelled to confront their innate needs and the inadequacy of existing religious and political institutions to fill the void.
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'Oedipus Rex'
(summary)
In the following essay, Peter Whitehead critiques Pasolini's film adaptation of Oedipus Rex, arguing that it misses the opportunity to offer a fresh interpretation of the myth, ultimately presenting a visually interesting but intellectually unengaging version that lacks existential depth and merely "Italianises" the original story.
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L'homme politique: Man and the Revolution at the N.Y. Film Festival
(summary)
In the following essay, Calvin Green critiques Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Pigpen for its complex symbolism and allegories, arguing that while Pasolini’s intellectual style is evident, it ultimately obscures the film’s themes and leaves viewers confused rather than engaged with its social and moral critiques.
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Film Reviews: 'Pigsty'
(summary)
In the following essay, Philip Strick analyzes Pasolini's film "Pigsty," arguing that it artistically combines disparate narratives to explore themes of human fulfillment, detachment from ideology, and the influence of external forces on human actions, ultimately transcending contemporary Italian cinema in defining Italy's poetic and cinematic challenges.
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Pasolini
(summary)
In the following essay, Roy Armes argues that Pier Paolo Pasolini's films, characterized by their stylistic pastiche and thematic tensions between Freudian and Marxist elements, highlight his unique approach to cinema, which blends narrative simplicity with ambiguity, and emphasizes the rediscovery of myth within reality while avoiding mere naturalistic representation.
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Callas Stars in 'Medea'
(summary)
In the following essay, Vincent Canby critiques Pier Paolo Pasolini's film "Medea" as an imaginative yet uneven interpretation of the Euripides play, praising its poetic moments and the daring imagination in its conception while noting its failure to successfully integrate Pasolini's vision with the original text's passion.
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Reviews: 'The Canterbury Tales'
(summary)
In the following essay, Alexander Stuart criticizes Pasolini's film The Canterbury Tales for its excessive bawdiness, lack of unity, and deviation from Chaucer’s poetry, arguing that it fails to showcase the director's talent compared to his earlier work, The Gospel According To St Matthew.
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Jackal and Hide
(summary)
In the following essay, John Coleman criticizes Pier Paolo Pasolini's film adaptation of The Canterbury Tales for its excessive vulgarity, arguing that its focus on crude humor and disconnected visuals debases the original work's comedic elements.
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Feature Films: 'Medea'
(summary)
In the following essay, Nigel Gearing examines Pasolini's film Medea, highlighting its ideological exploration of cultural conflicts and stylistic refinement, while noting its balance between philosophical reflection and narrative intrigue as a culmination of Pasolini's prior cinematic approaches.
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Reviews: 'Medea'
(summary)
In the following essay, Derek Elley critiques Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Medea, arguing that while its visual aesthetics are compelling and its narrative intriguing for analysis, the film ultimately suffers from a languid pace, emotional detachment, and a lack of engagement that renders it dull for audiences.
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Pier Paolo Pasolini
(summary)
In the following essay, John Russell Taylor critiques Pier Paolo Pasolini's films, including "Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo," "Oedipus," "Teorema," "Porcile," and "Il Decamerone," arguing that while some works display masterful storytelling and thematic depth, others fall short in their execution, highlighting Pasolini's complex interplay of intellect and instinct.
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Myth into Film: Pasolini's 'Medea' and its Dramatic Heritage
(summary)
In the following essay, Nathaniel Teich explores Pier Paolo Pasolini's Medea as a cinematic achievement that utilizes a nondogmatic Marxist framework to depict the interplay between cultural and individual consciousness, presenting mythopoeic and mythological themes through powerful visual imagery that transcend traditional character studies to illustrate cultural and historical dynamics.
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Notorious and Notable
(summary)
In the following essay, Robin Wood critiques Pasolini's film "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom" for its disturbing ambivalence and blurring of objectivity, arguing that the film's portrayal of power and degradation conflates obscenity with artistic intent, ultimately reflecting Pasolini's own obsessions and nightmares.
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Pasolini and Boccaccio
(summary)
In the following essay, David G. Bevan explores how Pier Paolo Pasolini's film adaptation of The Decameron not only reflects his personal creative vision but also strips Boccaccio's work of its literary artifice to highlight fundamental human experiences, while addressing claims of personal biases in his portrayal.
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Myth and Mise-en-Scène: Pasolini's 'Edipo Re'
(summary)
In the following essay, Robert J. White explores Pasolini's adaptation of the Oedipus myth in Edipo Re, highlighting Pasolini's approach of stripping the myth of historical context to emphasize its universal and dream-like qualities, contrasting Sophocles' historical interpretation with Pasolini's focus on myth's protean nature.
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Reviews: Pasolini's 'Salo: 120 Days of Sodom'
(summary)
In the following essay, Derek Elley critiques Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Salò as an excessively provocative work that sacrifices depth and human concern for obsessive and monotonous themes, arguing that its controversial elements overshadow its cinematic qualities and render it a futile exercise in film-making.
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A Weak Italian Trio
(summary)
In the following essay, Robert Asahina critiques Pasolini's Salò for its emphasis on shocking and obscene content over substantial political or moral insights, arguing that the film's aesthetic detachment and excessive formalism reveal the director's self-indulgence rather than genuine social critique.
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A Date Which Will Live in Fantasy
(summary)
In the following essay, Tom Allen criticizes Pasolini's The Arabian Nights for its failure to engage dramatically due to amateur performances and lack of film grammar mastery, while acknowledging its strengths in embracing ancient tales through Pasolini's unique documentary-based poeticism.
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Unfree Radicals
(summary)
In the following essay, J. Hoberman examines Pier Paolo Pasolini's Notes for an African Orestes, arguing that while it is often overlooked, it offers significant insight into Pasolini's Freudian-Marxist-Christian worldview, despite its casual structure and potentially patronizing elements in its treatment of African subjects.
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Stephen Snyder
(summary)
In the following essay, Stephen Snyder analyzes Pier Paolo Pasolini's films, emphasizing their complex integration of spiritual and Marxist themes, the holistic vision of reality they present, and the metaphorical use of eating, highlighting Pasolini's belief in cinema as a manifestation of love and creative spirit within life.
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'Accattone'
(summary)
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Pasolini, Pier Paolo
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An Interview with Pier Pasolini
(summary)
In the following interview, originally published in 1971, Pasolini discusses the poetic renewal that inspired Trasumanar e organizzar.
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'I Am a Free Man': Pasolini's Poetry in America
(summary)
In the following excerpt, MacAfee focuses on the appropriateness of Pasolini's civil poems to a post-fascist society.
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"Ah Mistica / Filologia!" Rereading Pasolini
(summary)
In the following essay, Mandelbaum comments on what he deems the "over-sympathetic relation between Pasolini and his audience".
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Pasolini and the City: Rome 1950: A Diary
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Oldcorn examines the poet's formative years in Rome and how they are reflected in his work, particularly in the early verse journal, Rome 1950: A Diary.
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Pasolini's Gramsci
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Sillanpoa investigates the influence of Antonio Gramsci on Pasolini's work, attempting to qualify the highly personal interpretation that Pasolini attached to Gramsci's writings and demonstrating the complexity of this relationship.
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The Concept of Death in Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Philosophical Approach
(summary)
In the following essay, Colilli uses philological criticism to study the concept of death in Pasolini's poems.
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The Word Beside Itself
(summary)
In the following essay, Agosti presents a phenomenological analysis of Pasolini's poetry, seeing his verse as both conservative and innovative.
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Reading Pasolini's Roses
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Jewell examines the poems "A na fruta," "Poesia informa di rosa," and "Nuova poesia in forma di rosa" in order to find a definition of Pasolini's poetic language.
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Poet into man
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Thompson notes the development of Pasolini from "civil poet" to "kinetic poet" in Pier Paolo Pasolini: Poems. As a poet, Pier Paolo Pasolini was an arch-traditionalist; as a man, a "politikon z on", he was a radical romantic whom disillusion drove to despair. The man frustrated the poet and forced him, first, to relinquish his traditional means in favour of a freer approach to poetry, and later, to abandon his poetry—ostensibly, at least—for the cinema.
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La meglio gioventù: The Best Youth
(summary)
In the following essay, Friedrich analyzes the imagery of Narcissus in Pasolini's Fruilian poems of La meglio gioventù.
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Pasolini: His Poems, His Body
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Ahern demonstrates how Pasolini's whole poetic career can be seen as a doomed struggle with the violence of poetic language.
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Most Ancient of Youths
(summary)
In the following excerpted review of Selected Poems, Wells notes that the strength of Pasolini's poetry derives from its openness and departure from hermetic lyric tradition.
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A Review of Selected Poems
(summary)
In the following excerpted review of Selected Poems, Formis finds that Pasolini's "fracture between moral vocation and inner feelings, between reason and instinct" is not resolved in his poetry.
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Pasolini: Organic Intellectual'?
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Greene surveys Pasolini's intellectual response to the thought of Antonio Gramsci, as reflected in his political verse.
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A Postscript to Transgression
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Bongie observes the importance of the 'authentic experience' in Pasolini's poems.
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An Interview with Pier Pasolini
(summary)
- Further Reading