Realtà contro stile in Pasolini

The identification between reality and integrity of life, a moralistic-creational theme of Christian inspiration that Pasolini had developed in a dense exchange with Elsa Morante, mainly during the preparation of The Gospel According to Matthew (1967), was developed after the film's completion by opposing reality to style, that is, not the thing to the sign - the sign nature of reality in Pasolini's world is, if anything, exacerbated by the use of scriptural culture - but living reality, which is and means itself, to the corruption of the cultural and historical sign that power (capital, pro-Nazi culture, etc.) reduces to style, to a form that no longer means or betrays its original meaning. The article analyses this opposition by reconstructing its cultural origins, sources and implications, starting with the Roman novels.