Table Of ContentPasolini after Dante
The ‘Divine Mimesis’ and the Politics of Representation
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ITalIan PeRSPeCTIveS
Editorial Committee
Professor Simon gilson, University of Warwick (general editor)
Dr Francesca Billiani, University of Manchester
Professor Manuele gragnolati, Université ParisSorbonne
Dr Catherine Keen, University College london
Professor Martin Mclaughlin, Magdalen College, Oxford
Founding Editors
Professor Zygmunt Baran´ski and Professor anna laura lepschy
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20. Ugo Foscolo and English Culture, by Sandra Parmegiani
21. The Printed Media in Fin-de-siècle Italy: Publishers, Writers, and Readers, ed. by ann Hallamore
Caesar, gabriella Romani, and Jennifer Burns
22. Giraffes in the Garden of Italian Literature: Modernist Embodiment in Italo Svevo, Federigo Tozzi
and Carlo Emilio Gadda, by Deborah amberson
23. Remembering Aldo Moro: The Cultural Legacy of the 1978 Kidnapping and Murder, ed. by Ruth
glynn and giancarlo lombardi
24. Disrupted Narratives: Illness, Silence and Identity in Svevo, Pressburger and Morandini, by emma
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25. Dante and Epicurus: A Dualistic Vision of Secular and Spiritual Fulfilment, by george Corbett
26. Edoardo Sanguineti: Literature, Ideology and the Avant-Garde, ed. by Paolo Chirumbolo and
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28. Leopardi’s Nymphs: Grace, Melancholy, and the Uncanny, by Fabio a. Camilletti
29. Gadda and Beckett: Storytelling, Subjectivity and Fracture, by Katrin Wehlinggiorgi
30. Caravaggio in Film and Literature: Popular Culture’s Appropriation of a Baroque Genius, by laura
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31. The Italian Academies 1525-1700: Networks of Culture, Innovation and Dissent, ed. by Jane e.
everson, Denis v. Reidy and lisa Sampson
32. Rome Eternal: The City As Fatherland, by guy lanoue
33. The Somali Within: Language, Race and Belonging in ‘Minor’ Italian Literature, by Simone Brioni
34. Laughter from Realism to Modernism: Misfits and Humorists in Pirandello, Svevo, Palazzeschi, and
Gadda, by alberto godioli
35. Pasolini after Dante: The ‘Divine Mimesis’ and the Politics of Representation, by emanuela Patti
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Pasolini after Dante
The ‘Divine Mimesis’ and the
Politics of Representation
❖
emanuela Patti
Italian Perspectives 35
Modern Humanities Research association and Routledge
2016
Published by the
Modern Humanities Research Association
Salisbury House, Station Road, Cambridge cb1 2la
and
Routledge
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LEGENDA is an imprint of the
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
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ISBN 978-1-909662-93-3 (hbk)
ISBN 978-1-315-55973-5 (ebk)
First published 2016
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Contents
❖
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations x
Introduction: Pasolini after Dante 1
1 Setting the Scene: Debates and Contexts 15
2 Dante, Poeta Della Realtà 32
3 Representing the Reality of the ‘Other’: Objectivity and Plurilingualism
from Poesia dialettale del Novecento to Ragazzi di vita 54
4 Officina and ‘la grande Ideologia del Reale’: Dante, Contini, gramsci, and
auerbach for a Theory of experimental literature 75
5 auerbach’s Figural Realism in Pasolini’s ‘nationalpopular’ Cinema
and Beyond 104
6 La Divina Mimesis, or the Death of Dantean Realism 129
Conclusion 155
Bibliography 162
Index 174
To the Others
ACKnoWLeDGeMents
❖
During the long compositional history of this book, several people have helped
me and supported me, and I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to
them. I am endlessly grateful to Manuele gragnolati, for the intertextual and live
conversations we have had on Dante and Pasolini. His guidance, encouragement and
intuitive intelligence have deeply inspired me during the preparation of this book. I
would like to thank my supervisor Michael Caesar, the Department of Italian Studies,
and the aHRC for supporting me during my PhD at Birmingham. The ideas of
this book were also inspired by numerous collaborations across disciplines over
the past five years. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my colleague at
Birmingham, Clodagh Brook, for the exciting interdisciplinary work we have carried
out together over the last few years. a warm thank for her untiring support and
exemplary academic commitment. I would also like to thank Pierpaolo antonello,
for the conversations on intellectuals, the media and representation in Cambridge,
london and Bologna; Davide Messina, for his brilliant advice on the title; Florian
Mussgnug, for his valuable comments on portions of Chapter 3 and 4; giuliana Pieri
and James Williams, for organising a stimulating london symposium on Pasolini
across disciplines in October 2014 that has enriched Chapter 5 of this book; and a
very special thank you is reserved for Colin Blakemore, for the stimulating dialogues
we have had on empathy and the arts.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the Institute of Modern languages
Research at the School of advanced Study, University of london, for the wonderful
professional opportunity I was given. The time spent at Senate House library during
my appointment has been one of the most productive and pleasant experiences of my
career. I am also very grateful to the Media School at Bournemouth University for
the valuable teaching experience I gained on representation. Two anonymous readers
for legenda provided helpful comments and criticism. I would like to thank Cristina
viti for her kind, patient and professional linguistic support with the translations of
this book; Simon gilson, series editor of Italian Perspectives at legenda, and graham
nelson, managing editor of legenda, for their great help in the editorial preparation
of the manuscript; Dan Harding and Kate Willman for their proofreading; Claire
Wallis and Paul Tyrrell for their linguistic support at the early stages of this editorial
project. affectionate thanks go to Daniel and Isobel Pick for their generous hospitality
and friendship during the final stages of writing this book; angela Quaquero for her
guidance through the symbolic; my family and friends in Italy, and especially my sister
Francesca, for her vital support and financial assistance. last but not least, I am very
grateful to laura and giulio lepschy for a memorable conversation on the emotional
and symbolic value of this book.
all the translations in this book are by Cristina viti.
e.p., london, august 2015
