Pasolini and the Sacred: A Lecture/Discussion by Professor Karen Raizen 

PASOLINI AND THE SACRED

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was an Italian filmmaker, poet, journalist, and public intellectual. Contradiction defined his life and work: he was a communist who rejected and was rejected by the Italian communist party, a gay man who refused to be a spokesperson for the gay community, a bourgeois intellectual who idealized the subproletariat. He was also an avowed atheist whose gaze was turned obsessively toward representations of the sacred. He sought out the sacred in lands far removed from his own—places like Yemen and Tanzania—while still hoping to find traces of it in the fast-paced world of his native Italy during the post-War economic boom. The figure of Christ was omnipresent in his works, as was the ambiguous specter of the Catholic Church. He invested in the sacred as a language, an aesthetic, a currency, a lost past, and a fading present. In this discussion, we will explore Pasolini’s complex, often contradictory views on the sacred. 

Email: [email protected] with questions.

---

For more information, call 347-466-3000, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://N/A.

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Chapel of the Holy Innocents

Subscribe: Save this Event: Subscribe / .ics File