La rabbia / Anger

Written in response to producer Gastone Ferranti's request for his comments on a set of newsreel items, the poet would respond with a montage of his own. Via the unfolding of a chrysalis of images, in La rabbia (1963), Pasolini's lens pans over Soviet repression in Hungary; the Cuban revolution; (the utopian object of) space exploration; political imprisonment in Algeria; the liberation of the former European colonies; the election of Pope John xxiii; the prospect of revolution in Africa and the Middle East; in Europe and in Latin America... Here, we've a panoply of photorealist intimations. The death of Marilyn Monroe crests as an idea in this tidal pooling of reflections, as the poet's line lights out for conceptual rhymes and counterpoints. In Viti's translation, the weave of prose and poetry that forms La rabbia portrays the vitality of Pasolini's work in its capacity to speak to both the specifics of his contexts, the character of our own present tense, and the ironic fact of a life lived against the gulf of discontent in its myriad forms. Here, we've a startling confrontation of a revolutionary struggle in stasis set in lines that crystallise in a rallying call against blindness.

Alongside a first, unabridged English language translation of Pasolini's 'Sequences,' the Tenement Press publication of La rabbia also includes an introduction by Roberto Chiesi (cultural director of the Centro Studi-Archivio Pier Paolo Pasolini, Cineteca di Bologna), and an afterword by storyteller, novelist, essayist, and screenwriter, John Berger.

About the author

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was an Italian poet, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, theorist, and dramaturg. First and foremost a poet, he is a major figure in European literature and cinematic arts. Life in Rome during the 1950s furnished the material for his first two novels, Ragazzi di vita (The Ragazzi, 1955) and Una vita violenta (A Violent Life, 1959); works whose brutal reflections of urban poverty in the city were similar in character to the depictions of Rome in his debut film, Accattone (1961). All three works dealt with the lives of thieves, prostitutes, and other denizens of a Roman underworld. Other notable novels and narrative works in translation include the unfinished novel Petrolio (published in English in Ann Goldstein's translation by Pantheon), a work-in-progress at the time of Pasolini's death, and La lunga strada di sabbia (The Long Road of Sand), a facsimile of writings towards a travelogue initially published in the magazine Successo. Pasolini published numerous volumes of poetry in his lifetime, including La meglio gioventù (1954); Le ceneri di Gramsci (1957); L'usignolo della chiesa cattolica (1958); La religione del mio tempo (1961); Poesia in forma di rosa (1964); Trasumanar e organizzar (1971); and La nuova gioventù (1975). Works of poetry in English language translation include Norman MacAfee's Poems, an anthology covering the entirety of Pasolini's 'official publications' (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1982); Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Francesca Valente's Roman Poems (City Lights, 1986); Jack Hirschman's anthology, In Danger (City Lights, 2010); and Thomas E. Peterson's translation of The Divine Mimesis (Contra Mundum, 2014), amongst others.

*

Cristina Viti's publications include the Selected Poems of Dino Campana with the full text of the Orphic Songs, collections by Etel Adnan, Mariangela Gualtieri and Anna Gréki, as well as Elsa Morante's The Worlds Saved by Kids, shortlisted for the John Florio Prize. Translations for the theatre include Orson Welles' Moby Dick-Rehearsed for the Teatro dell'Elfo in Milan. Among forthcoming books are translations of the Selected Poems of Luigi Di Ruscio and of Luca Rastello's The Rain's Falling Up, a novel exploring the politics and spirit of 1970s Italy.

Product details

• Authors: Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Assisted by: Dominic Jaeckle (Editor)
• Publisher: Tenement Press
• Languages: Italian
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 27.11.2022
• EAN: 9781838020088
• ISBN: 978-1-83802-008-8
• No. of pages: 264
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 216 mm x 16 mm
• Weight: 377 g
• Subject: Fiction > Poetry, drama