Abstract
In this short introduction, I explain the context of the book. It begins with a brief explanation of both Althusser’s and Pasolini’s philosophical, political, and artistic backgrounds, their tendencies, and other factors that determined their work. It is a short history of both authors. It ends up with situation the book within the field of Marxism and philosophy and how it should be understood.
Communists never cry in wilderness. Even when they are practically alone
— Louis Althusser, Essays in Self-Criticism (London: NLB, 1976), p. 39.
One does not really know a person until he has died.
— Pier Paolo Pasolini
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Notes
- 1.
Althusser’s friend Maria Antonietta Macciocchi, with whom he kept a long correspondence, was also a collaborator of Pasolini. She has written prefaces to at least two books of Pasolini, published in Italian and French.
- 2.
Hood 1987, p. 7.
- 3.
Perhaps, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom is the only non-Pasolinian film of Pasolini.
- 4.
Stuart Hood, Introduction, p. 9.
- 5.
See Althusser 2014, pp. 207–244.
- 6.
Cf. Althusser 2007, pp. 153–172; Althusser 1978.
- 7.
Althusser 1992, p. 171.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Elliott 1993, pp. 17–37.
- 10.
Althusser 2008, p. 122.
- 11.
Althusser 1993, p. 173.
- 12.
Ibid, pp. 346–347.
- 13.
“Vatican ‘canonizes’ Pasolini’s St. Matthew,” available online at http://buenosairesherald.com/article/165359/vatican-%E2%80%98canonizes%E2%80%99-pasolini%E2%80%99s-s. Indeed, Pope Francis has done some acts and given some statements which are not typical of the Catholic Church: has launched in the Vatican a meeting of the world’s Popular Movements, which include migrants, trade unionists, precarious workers, and so on; has attacked anti-immigrant policies of the European Union (EU) as barbaric; has enacted a zero-tolerance policy against pedophilia in the Catholic Church; and so on. He even went so far as to declare that he believes in God, and not in a Catholic God, and that he recognized the theory of evolution and argued that God is not a wizard. However, it is still to be seen if Pasolini’s conception of God and Althusser’s radical vision of the Church will be met with Pope Francis’ policies.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Alain Badiou, The Adventure of French Philosophy, available online at http://www.lacan.com/badenglish.htm
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Hamza, A. (2016). Introduction: Althusser and Pasolini. In: Althusser and Pasolini. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56652-2_1
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