ebook img

The Resurrection of the Body: Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade PDF

420 Pages·2009·0.52 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview The Resurrection of the Body: Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade

The Resurrection of the Body The Resurrection of the Body Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade ARMANDO MAGGI TheUniversityofChicagoPress ChicagoandLondon ARMANDO MAGGIisprofessorintheDepartmentofRomance LanguagesandLiteraturesattheUniversityofChicago.Heisthe authorofseveralbooks,including,mostrecently,IntheCompanyof Demons:UnnaturalBeings,Love,andIdentityintheItalianRenaissance, alsopublishedbytheUniversityofChicagoPress. TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637 TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London ©2009byTheUniversityofChicago Allrightsreserved.Published2009 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 1615141312111009 12345 ISBN-13:978-0-226-50134-5(cloth) ISBN-10:0-226-50134-5(cloth) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Maggi,Armando. Theresurrectionofthebody:PierPaoloPasolinifromSaintPaulto Sade/ArmandoMaggi. p. cm. lncludesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-0-226-50134-5(cloth:alk.paper) ISBN-10:0-226-50134-5(cloth:alk.paper) 1.Pasolini,PierPaolo, 1922–1975—Criticismandinterpretation. I.Title. PN1998.3.P367M34 2009 858(cid:2).91409—dc 2008028193 (cid:4)∞Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements oftheAmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences— PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1992. Contents Acknowledgments vii INTRODUCTION Sodom,ItsInhabitants,andIts LanguageinPasolini’sFinalWorks 1 1 ABodyofNostalgia:Pasolini’sSelf-Portraitinthe FilmProjectSaintPaul 21 2 TheJourneytoSodomandGomorrahandBeyond: TheScenarioPorn-Theo-Colossal 107 3 “ADilutedReelofFilminMyBrain”:ToPreach aNew“WordofAbjuration”inPetrolio 157 4 ToGiveBirthinSalo` andSade’sThe120Days ofSodom 256 CONCLUSION “ASchizophrenicChildIsaTinyDot, IDreamedOnce”:MetamorphosisinMarioMieli andPasolini 339 Appendix:ABasicBiography 355 Notes 363 Bibliography 393 Index 405 Acknowledgments My most sincere thanks to the friends who have read and commentedonpartsofthemanuscript:RebeccaWestand MichaelSyrimis.Mikerescuedmefromatragicbutnotseri- ouserror.WritingonSignoraMaggi’stalesonthejoyofco- prophiliainSalo`,Imistakenlyattributedallherembarrass- ingstatementstoanotherofthefourstorytellers,probably because subconsciously I could not accept that a member ofmywell-respectedfamilycouldsaythosedirtythings. Iwouldliketoexpressmygratitudetothosecolleagues and friends who provided me with relevant bibliographi- cal references: Paul Lachance, Christopher Lane, Rebecca Arellano,andVictoriaGayleTillson. AspecialthankstomystudentNicholasMcMaster,who tookmyPasoliniclassthefirsttimeIoffereditattheUni- versityofChicago,andtoallthestudentsofmymostrecent Pasolini seminar (academic year 2006–7). It was an unfor- gettableclass,atleastforme. DouglasMitchell,senioracquisitioneditorattheUniver- sityofChicagoPress,believedinthisnewprojectofmine, eventhoughitdifferedfrommypreviousbooks.Myheart- feltthankstohimandtoTimothyMcGovern,Doug’skind andencouragingassistant. vii INTRODUCTION Sodom, Its Inhabitants, and Its Language in Pasolini’s Final Works Intheheydayofgayandlesbianstudies,JonathanGoldberg edited an important collection of essays, entitled Reclaim- ing Sodom (Routledge, 1994), that loosely revolved around the theme of sodomy. The reference to Sodom as a place that needs to be revisited and appropriated—the original placethatwitnessedthebirthofaparadoxicalpracticethat negatesbirth—wasaddressedin RockyO’Donovan’sshort piecebythesametitle,“ReclaimingSodom.”Gaywomen,O’- Donovanwrites,haveLesbos,an“actualspacewhichtheycan dreamofandre-createandhopetoward.”1Unlikelesbians, gaymendonothavea“space/timetoclaimas[their]own.” One day, O’Donovan continues, he had a sudden insight. He realized that he should consider himself a “Sodomite- American.”O’Donovancontendsthat,asAfricaisamythic birthplace for many black people in the United States, so Sodomisthelandofgayness,theplacetowhichgayiden- titymustreturntogetintouchwithitsroots.LikeAfrica, Sodomisatonceaplaceofthepastandautopianlandof the future, a land where gay identity creates and recreates itself.“Iwantto(re)claimSodomforourown,”O’Donovan contends,“soIspeakanewmyth.”2Butitisworthremem- beringthatSodomisaburnt-downplace,alandscapeofde- solation.ToreclaimSodommeanstovisitadesertofashes. 1

Description:
Italian novelist, poet, and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally killed in Rome in 1975, a macabre end to a career that often explored humanity’s capacity for violence and cruelty. Along with the mystery of his murderer’s identity, Pasolini left behind a controversial but acclaimed
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.