The desire for power and the power of desire: The case of Pier Paolo Pasolini

This chapter focuses on Pasolini’s film Edipe Re (1967), his love poem to his mother, and his play “Affabulacione” (1966). The latter is concerned with a father who turns into a jealous lover of his son. He is so possessive of his son that he ends up killing the son. A reversal of Oedipus and Sophocles’ ghost is a key character in the play. Thus “Affublacione” or “Fabrications” problematizes incest as a gay reversal of the Oedipus complex. The crucial point is that the reversal of Oedipus in Pasolini’s play “Affabulacione” is Oedipal too: it is premised on the desire for power and the power of desire. Art and psychoanalysis here meet politics. The political aspect of mental life and its deceptive representations are also pertinent for a better understanding of Pasolini’s early films. “Mamma Roma” (1962) and Accatone (1961).