Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:52:43.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Officina: experiments in engaging with the arts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2016

Francesca Billiani
Francesca Billiani*
Affiliation:
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Italian Department, The University of Manchester
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is primarily concerned with interconnections between forms of impegno (political engagement) and aesthetic choices, as they were articulated in the literary and cultural journal Officina. In order to reassess the role of Officina within the Italian cultural and political debate of the day, this article considers two main narratives unfolding in the journal: the aesthetic rejection of Novecentismo, understood as the epitome of artistic autonomy, and the articulation of a form of Marxist impegno suitable for a neo-capitalist society and stemming from the class-based idea of the organic intellectual. Using published and unpublished correspondence, we argue that Officina had a pivotal role in producing a theoretical framework for the conceptualisation of a post-neorealist idea of Marxist critical analysis as well as of intellectual, aesthetic and political engagement.

Keywords

impegnoPier Paolo PasoliniOfficinahistoricismneo-realism.
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 21 , Issue 2: National Dialogues and Transnational Exchanges across Italian Periodical Culture, 1940–1960 , May 2016 , pp. 199 - 214
Copyright
© 2016 Association for the Study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baranelli, L., ed., 2000. Italo Calvino, Lettere. Milan: Mondadori.Google Scholar
Bertoni, A. 2010. “Pasolini, Officina e l’avanguardia.” In Atlante dei movimenti culturali dell’Emilia-Romanga dall’Ottocento al contemporaneo. Gli anni Cinquanta-Sessanta, edited by Piero Piero and Luigi Weber, vol. 3, 83–91. Bologna: CLUEB.Google Scholar
Billiani, F. 2016. “Paragone. Notes on Hegemony and Realism in the 1950s.” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 21 (1): 81–96.Google Scholar
Casadei, A., and Santagata, M.. eds. 2007. Manuale di letteratura italiana contemporanea. Bari: Editori Laterza.Google Scholar
De Castris, L. 1993. Sulle ceneri di Gramsci: Pasolini, i comunisti e il ’68. Naples: CUEN.Google Scholar
Della Terza, D. 1961. “Il realismo mimetico di Pier Paolo Pasolini.” Italica 38 (4): 306–313.Google Scholar
D’Elia, G. 1998. “Da Officina all’esperienza di Lengua.” In Pasolini e Bologna, edited by Davide Ferrari and Gianni Scalia, 205–216. Bologna: Péndragon.Google Scholar
Ferretti, G.C. 1964. Letteratura e ideologia: Bassani, Cassola, Pasolini. Rome: Editori Riuniti.Google Scholar
Ferretti, G.C., ed., 1975. “Officina.” Cultura, letteratura e politica negli anni Cinquanta. Saggio introduttivo, antologia della rivista, testi inediti e apparati. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Ferretti, G.C. 1998. “Un dibattito su Officina.” In Pasolini e Bologna, edited by Davide Ferrari and Gianni Scalia, 173–176. Bologna: Péndragon.Google Scholar
Ferri, F. 1996. Linguaggio, passione e ideologia: Pier Paolo Pasolini tra Gramsci, Gadda e Contini. Rome: Progetti Museali Editore.Google Scholar
Francese, J. 1991. Cultura e politica negli anni Cinquanta: Salinari, Pasolini, Calvino. Rome: Lithos.Google Scholar
Leonetti, F. 1998. “Con Pasolini in Officina.” In Pasolini e Bologna, edited by Davide Ferrari and Gianni Scalia, 107–117. Bologna: Péndragon.Google Scholar
Levato, V. 2002. Lo sperimentalismo tra Pasolini e la neoavanguardia (1955–1965). Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino editore.Google Scholar
Luperini, R. 2012. “Modernismo e poesia italiana del primo Novecento.” Allegoria 63:92–100.Google Scholar
Naldini, N. ed., 1986. Pier Paolo Pasolini: Lettere (1940-1954). Vol. 1. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Naldini, N. ed., 1988. Pier Paolo Pasolini: Lettere (1955-1975). Vol. 2. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Mancianti, G. 1988–1989. “Il laboratorio di Officina: per una storia della rivista attraverso il carteggio.” Tesi di laurea. Università degli Studi di Siena.Google Scholar
Mengaldo, P.V. 1983. “Pasolini critico e la poesia contemporanea”, in Pier Paolo Pasolini. L’opera e il suo tempo, edited by Guido Santato. Padoa: Cleup: 121–152.Google Scholar
Ó’Ceallacháin, É. 2013. “Polemical performances: Pasolini, Fortini, Sanguineti and the literary-ideological debates of the 1950s.” Modern Language Review 108 (2): 475–503.Google Scholar
Petrucciani, M. 1982. “Officina e lo sperimentare poetico.” In Novecento. Gli scrittori e la cultura letteraria nella società italiana, edited by Giovanni Grana, vol. IX, 8590–8601. Milan: Marzorati editore.Google Scholar
Ravetto, K. 2003. “Heretical Marxism. Pasolini’s Cinema Impopolare.” In From Marx to Madonna: Theory, Culture, Politics, edited by R. L. Rutsky, and Bradley J. Macdonald, 225–248. Albany: State University of New York.Google Scholar
Santato, G. 2012. Pier Paolo Pasolini. Rome: Carocci.Google Scholar
Siciliano, E. 1982. “Passato e presente in Officina.” In Novecento. Gli scrittori e la cultura letteraria nella società italiana, edited by Giovanni Grana, vol. IX, 8601–8605. Milan: Marzorati editore.Google Scholar
Vighi, F. 2000. “Lo sperimentalismo di Pasolini: Impegno come existenz.” The Italianist 20:229–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vittoria, A. 1992. Togliatti e gli intellettuali. Rome: Editori Riuniti.Google Scholar
Voza, P. 2000. Tra continuità e diversità: Pasolini e la critica. Naples: Liguori.Google Scholar
VV. AA. 2004. Officina, Bologna 1955–1959, anastatic reproduction, Bologna: Péndragon.Google Scholar
Ward, D. 1995. A Poetics of Resistance. Narrative and the Writings of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP.Google Scholar