Beyond the words: Pier Paolo Pasolini and the language as spirit of life

From Firenze University Press Journal: Quaderni di Linguistica e Studi Orientali / Working Papers in Linguistics and Oriental Studies (QULSO)

Maria Teresa Venturi, University of Florence

Perhaps, among the many souls of Pier Paolo Pasolini, well known as a poet, novelist, journalist, screenwriter, director, critic and intellectual corsair, his vocation as a linguist does not seem to have enjoyed the deserved importance to date: in reality, the vital core of his production is his passion for the study of language in all its forms, his perception of language as a vital centre of personal and social existence.

In the course of his life, he carried on a continuous experimentation of the most diverse uses of verbal language, from poetic to journalistic, from dialect to high and literary Italian language, from the language of songs to the scientific Italian of his essays, and again the language of theatrical and cinematographic scripts, the judicial language, the political-ideological language of an active intellectual, and finally the lowest registers of neglected and colloquial Italian; moreover, he painted, drew, experienced music and above all he explored the great world of cinema, where various expressive channels converge (not just words but music, songs, moving bodies, etc.)

Simultaneously, he carried on a tight theoretical reflection on all linguistic forms he used, from the dialect of his first poems (his debut dates back to 1942, with his collection Poesie a Casarsa (‘Poems from Casarsa’) written in Friulian dialect) to the intense critic of contemporary Italian, which exploded in 1964 through his famous essay Nuove Questioni Linguistiche (‘New linguistic questions’) from the many accusations on television and political language to his broad reflection on the language of cinema, considered by Pasolini the only tool capable of depicting reality without using symbols, such as words, but through reality itself, allowing him to always live at the level, and in the heart, of reality.

According to Pasolini, linguistic experimentation therefore embodies a necessary condition of existence, as it reflects and at the same time guarantees his degree of participation to the surrounding reality: in fact, the poet’s relationship with linguistic universe reflects his urgency of having to express himself in order to survive: indeed, according to Pasolini, different languages make up as many different forms of relating to others and to the world, as well as establishing a deep connection with different aspects of his identity (Friulian poet, narrator of Roman borgate, active intellectual, filmmaker and so on).

In Pasolini’s view, in fact, it was precisely thanks to the accumulation and the reciprocal exchange between heterogeneous languages (as happens in cinema) that a sufficiently complex, vital and dynamic representation of reality could be hopefully achieved, since only “la complessiva interazione tra linguaggi diversi, come nella realtà, garantisce la massima continuità fra la realtà e le sue rappresentazioni” (‘the overall interaction between different languages, as in reality, can guarantee the best continuity between reality and its representations.’) (De Mauro 1987a: 277).

And it’s not only that, Pasolini also crossed every border between languages and materials, broke the laws of their normal conditions of use, rules and limits, and by juxtaposing them in such a number, he transformed, manipulated and even violated them. Above all, however, Pasolini crossed the greatest border, the one separating the artistic sphere from the dimension of practice: in fact, he actually opened his own artistic writing to practical purposes, by writing verses and novels as well as news pieces, by talking directly to his readers or even reproaching them, by accusing or defending himself through his literary works.

For this reason, it’s clear how Pasolini’s linguistic research can be inscribed in a broader concept of artistic experience as a form of action, therefore inseparable from the figure of the author, who becomes integral part of all his work, with every gesture, word, stance and public demonstration.Thus, Pasolini considered language as a concrete tool of investigation as well as action inside reality: following Gramsci’s wake, he was deeply convinced that it is within the language that all turmoils of social and cultural change emerge, and that language is the place where the actual power of ruling class can be verified.

Ogni volta che affiora, in un modo o nell’altro, la questione della lingua, significa che si sta imponendo una serie di altri problemi: la formazione e l’allargamento della classe dirigente, la necessità di stabilire rapporti più intimi e sicuri tra i gruppi dirigenti e la massa popolare-nazionale, cioè di riorganizzare l’egemonia culturale.(Every time that the language issue reappears in one way or another, it means that a series of other problems is also emerging: the formation and the widening of the ruling class, the need for establishing more intimate and safer relationships between leading groups and national-popular masses, that is the need for reorganizing cultural hegemony.)

(Gramsci 1976: 2346)

Furthermore, language is, and must be, an effective instrument of intervention on reality, and for this reason he is the first to use it to the best of its abilities, overturning it, shaping it, altering it, constantly testing language as an instrument capable of conveying what he considers as the meaning.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/qulso-2421-7220-9710

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