La tristesse de Pasolini

Abstract

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“The Form of a City”: Pasolini and the Poetic Ecology of the Sign

“…In returning to its context, however, such an approach to anthropology could have proved fruitful. Christian Prigent (2005) has already demonstrated why Pasolini should be understood “as the main representative of a certain type of intellectual activism” that cannot be separated from the “radicalism of the [political and intellectual] schisms” of Italy from 1960 to 1970 (p. 29): the radical nature of revolutionary struggles, of the dark presence of secret societies, and of strategies of tension. Paradoxically, this anthropological context moves Pasolini’s fields of work closer to new fields of urban studies.…”

“…This Pasolinian worldview often gives his works the appearance of a “lyrical lamentation on the disappearance of a world” (Prigent, 2005, p. 37). Christian Prigent (2005) enumerates the objects of Pasolini’s mourning the vanished “patriarchal-peasantry civility” and forgotten “old language of the soil”; nature massacred by the industrial age (the Italy of the “dirty beaches”); the old world has been turned to glass, objectified by the forces of the marketplace and the Debordian spectacle. (p. 38)Pasolini’s sadness is exacerbated by his impression that his contemporaries had difficulty conceiving of this anthropological rupture.…”

“…The third hypothesis relates to the unique features of his so-called “years of lead” in Italy. As noted by Prigent (2005), Pasolini should also be understood as the “name of a certain type of intellectual activism” (p. 29) that can be understood, however, only in the context of Italy from 1960 to 1970, which was marked by “radical rifts” and “intellectuals identifying themselves as militants” (p. 29). This context has adversely affected the circulation of Pasolini’s thoughts in the social sciences.…”

“…This context has adversely affected the circulation of Pasolini’s thoughts in the social sciences. Pasolini’s belief in an “artistic activity as a civic calling” (Prigent, 2005, p. 30) led him to commit fully to strictly Italian controversies (his intention to sue the leaders of the Christian Democratic Party illustrates this full commitment). However, this civic commitment has confined him to a specific geographical context, without which his thoughts may have spread more easily.…”