Heretical Empiricism [Paperback]

Pier Paolo Pasolini (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0976704226 | ISBN-13: 978-0976704225 | Publication Date: October 15, 2005

This is an expanded edition of Pier Paolo Pasolini's long out-of-print Heretical Empiricism. It includes a new Introduction by Ben Lawton that discusses the relevance of the book on the 30th anniversary of the author's death. It also features the first approved translation of "Repu- diation of the 'Trilogy of Life'," one of Pasolini's most con- troversial final essays.While Pasolini is best known in the U.S. as a revolutionary film director, in Italy he was even better known as poet, novelist, playwright, political gadfly, and scholar of the semiotics of film. "New Academic Publishing should be commended for making this expanded version of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Hermetic Empiricism once again available to the English-speaking public, especially in the light of the fact that the important essay, "Repudiation of the Trilology of Life," has been added to its contents. Thirty years after Pasolini's violent death on 2 November 1975, the appearance of this excellent translation and edition of his major writings on Italian film, literature, and language is most welcome. No figure has emerged in Italy since the writer/director's death that has aroused such passionate opinions from all sides of the political and cultural spectrum. The translations by Ben Lawton and Louise Barnett render Pasolini's sometimes complex prose accurately with ample explanatory notes to guide the reader without a firm grasp of the original essays in Italian. This book represents an important work to have in every library devoted to cultural criticism, cinema, and literary theory." -- Peter Bondanella, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian, Indiana University "One of the greatest cultural figures of postwar Europe, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), who is already widely known as a revolutionary filmmaker, was an equally important writer and poet. Pasolini's numerous works are published in some 50 volumes, which include poetry, novels, critical and theoretical essays, verse tragedies, screenplays, political journalism, and translations. With this successful and complete translation of Empirismo eretico (a collection of Pasolini's interventions on language, literature, and film written between 1964 and 1971), editors Barnett and Lawton have made a wide sample of Pasolini's most significant theoretical work available to the English-speaking reader. Essays on the screenplay, on the commercial and the art cinema, and on film semiotics make the collection of special interest to American film scholars and students. This volume is further enriched by an excellent introduction, carefully edited notes, a useful biographical glossary, and a thorough index. Given the contemporary interest in studying film, together with other cultural forms, within a broad social and historical context, Pasolini's "extravagantly interdisciplinary" writings beckon as a promising source of insight. A potentially seminal text that could contribute to the further evolution of interdisciplinary humanistic studies, Heretical Empiricism is highly recommended for university and college libraries." -- J. Welle, University of Notre Dame, CHOICE (1989)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Late Italian film director Pasolini was a controversial figure on the Italian cultural scene, as this collection of 31 previously untranslated essays, articles, and miscellaneous pieces shows. An avowed Marxist and yet, as the title implies, a "heretical" one, he borrowed freely from many schools of belief to formulate his theories on literature, film, and linguistics. The translation seems adequate, but individual pieces sometimes go beyond the abstract to the abstruse and are heavy going. Because of Pasolini's prominence, however, it is recommended for comprehensive collections. Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A potentially seminal text that could contribute to the further evolution of interdisciplinary humanistic studies." -J. Welle, Notre Dame University. -- CHOICE, January 1988

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: New Academia Publishing, LLC (October 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976704226
• ISBN-13: 978-0976704225
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone interested in Pasolini...a testament to his genius and complexity..., February 17, 2009

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Grigory's Girl "Grigory's Girl" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heretical Empiricism (Paperback)

This book, a collection of essays by the multi-talented, brilliant, amazing, eclectic, true Renaissance man Pier Paolo Pasolini, is back in print after a very long hiatus being in the out of print wilderness. It is an incredibly comprehensive book of Pasolini's literary output. Pasolni is mainly known in the US as a filmmaker (and mostly for his still controversial, shocking film Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom), but he was much, much more than that. He was a celebrated and villified playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, political activist, and cultural critic. As the introduction by Ben Lawton states, Pasolini was very similar to the cultural critics of our day all rolled into one. He was villified by both left and right, and he was usually right in his criticisms of both sides, even though he was a Communist (though he was expelled from the PCI, the Italian Communist Party, in 1949). He was/is an immensely complex man, a true intellectual who also knew about life (something Maria Callas had said about him during their filming of Medea).

This compliation has many great essays, but the most important ones (to me, at least) are the "repudiation of the Trilogy of Life", a repudiation of Pasolini's three film, The Decameron, The Cantebury Tales, and Arabian Nights, which were his 3 most commercially successful films. Pasolini's repudiation is well thought out, and makes sense, even though I still enjoyed those 3 films immensely. In fact, they were the first 3 films of his I saw. I also admire his epic poem "The PCI to the Young!", and its "explaination" afterwards.

There are 30 essays here, printed in a wonderful edition which is an absolute must for any Pasolini admirer, and a must for anyone interested in Italian culture and politics. This book is a magnificent example of the complexity and genius of Pasolini, and for those who only know him for the film Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, should read this book (and read Barth David Schwarz's excellent biography, Pasolini Requiem) so they can get a glimpse of one of the greatest artistic, intellectual minds that Italy ever produced.