Pasolini in/and Catalonia: Translation, Minority Languages, and Internationalism

Abstract

This article posits that Pier Paolo Pasolini’s long engagement with Catalonia offers important insights into his practice as a poet, filmmaker, and thinker about language, as well as explaining the nature of his influence on other European cinemas. The first part of the article focusses on the special issue “Fiore di poeti catalani” of Quaderno romanzo alongside Pasolini’s poetry in and advocacy for the Friulan language. The second part of the article focusses on Joaquín (Joaquim) Jordà’s translation of Pasolini, published as Cine de poesía contra cine de prosa, alongside the emergence of the Barcelona school of filmmakers, of which Jordà was a part. Overall, the article argues that although there was clearly an Italian influence on Catalan cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, throughout the long course of his career there was a distinctly Catalan quality to Pasolini’s thought.