Editing Pier Paolo Pasolini (section)

== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in [[Bologna]], Italy. He was the son of elementary-school teacher Susanna Colussi, named after her great-grandmother,<ref>Frank Northen Magill, ''Critical survey of poetry: foreign language series'', Salem Press, 1984, p. 1145</ref> and Carlo Alberto Pasolini, a lieutenant in the [[Royal Italian Army]]; they had married in 1921. Pasolini was born in 1922 and named after a paternal uncle. His family moved to [[Conegliano]] in 1923, then to [[Belluno]] in 1925, where their second son, Guidalberto, was born. In 1926, Pasolini's father was arrested for gambling debts. His mother moved with the children to her family's home in [[Casarsa della Delizia]], in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. In that same year, his father first detained, then identified [[Anteo Zamboni]] as the would-be assassin of [[Benito Mussolini]] following his assassination attempt.{{Citation needed|reason=Is it an established fact that he saved it, or is this merely based on his claim of having done so? There appears to be conflicting testimony, such as by Marshal Francesco Burgio.|date=September 2014}} Carlo Alberto was persuaded of the virtues of [[Italian fascism]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Siciliano |first=Enzo |date=2014 |title=Pasolini; Una vida tormentosa |publisher=Torres de Papel|page=37|isbn=978-84-943726-4-3}}</ref>

Pasolini began writing poems at age seven, inspired by the natural beauty of Casarsa. One of his early influences was the work of [[Arthur Rimbaud]]. His father was transferred to [[Idria]] in the [[Julian March]] (now in [[Slovenia]]) in 1931;<ref>[http://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/drugo/ste-vedeli-da-je-pier-paolo-pasolini-v-otrostvu-nekaj-casa-zivel-v-idriji/294028 Ste vedeli, da je Pier Paolo Pasolini v otroštvu nekaj časa živel v Idriji?: Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija]. Rtvslo.si (20 October 2012). Retrieved 22 May 2014.</ref> in 1933 they moved again to [[Cremona]] in Lombardy, and later to [[Scandiano]] and [[Reggio Emilia]]. Pasolini found it difficult to adapt to all these dislocations, although he enlarged his poetry and literature readings ([[Dostoyevsky]], [[Tolstoy]], [[Shakespeare]], [[Coleridge]], [[Novalis]]) and left behind the religious fervour of his early years. In the Reggio Emilia high school, he met his first true friend, Luciano Serra. The two met again in Bologna, where Pasolini spent seven years completing high school. Here he cultivated new passions, including [[Association football|football]]. With other friends, including Ermes Parini, Franco Farolfi, Elio Meli, he formed a group dedicated to literary discussions.

In 1939, Pasolini graduated and entered the Literature College of the [[University of Bologna]], discovering new themes such as [[philology]] and [[aesthetics]] of [[figurative art]]s. He also frequented the local cinema club. Pasolini always showed his friends a virile and strong exterior, totally hiding his interior turmoil. In his poems of this period, Pasolini started to include fragments in [[Friulan]], a minority language he did not speak but learned after he had begun to write poetry in it. "I learnt it as a sort of mystic act of love, a kind of ''[[Félibrige|félibrisme]]'', like the [[Occitan literature|Provençal poets]]."<ref>Stack, O. (1969). ''Pasolini on Pasolini'', pp. 15–17, London: Thames and Hudson.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> In 1943, he would found the ''Academiuta della lenga furlana'' (Academy of the Friulan Language) with fellow students.<ref>Thompson, N.S. (1981), ''Pier Paolo Pasolini: Poet and Prophet'', in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''[[Cencrastus]]'' No. 7, Winter 1981 - 82, pp. 30 - 32.</ref> As a young adult, Pasolini identified as an [[atheist]].<ref>Guy Flatley, [http://www.moviecrazed.com/outpast/pasolini.html The Atheist who was Obsessed with God] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172047/http://www.moviecrazed.com/outpast/pasolini.html |date=3 March 2016}}, 1969, located at Moviecrazed.com (accessed 25 April 2008).</ref>

In the waning years of [[World War II]], Pasolini was [[Conscription|drafted]] into the [[Royal Italian Army|Italian Army]].<ref name="poetry foundation">[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/pier-paolo-pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1922–1975] [[Poetry Foundation]]. Retrieved May 9, 2024.</ref> After his regiment was [[Prisoner of war|captured]] by the [[Nazi Germany|Germans]] following [[Armistice of Cassibile|Italy's surrender]], he escaped and fled to the small town of [[Casarsa della Delizia|Casarsa]] where he remained for several years.<ref name="poetry foundation"/>

=== Early poetry ===
[[File:Pier Paolo Pasolini casarsa.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Pasolini in his young years]]
In 1942, Pasolini published at his own expense a collection of poems in Friulan, ''Poesie a Casarsa'', which he had written at the age of eighteen. The work was noted and appreciated by such intellectuals and critics as [[Gianfranco Contini]], [[Alfonso Gatto]] and Antonio Russi. Pasolini's pictures had also been well received. He was chief editor of a magazine called ''Il Setaccio'' ('The Sieve'), but was fired after conflicts with the director, who was aligned with the [[Fascist regime in Italy|Fascist regime]]. A trip to Germany helped him also to perceive the "provincial" status of [[Italian culture]] in that period. These experiences led Pasolini to revise his opinion about the cultural politics of Fascism and to switch gradually to a [[communist]] position.

Pasolini's family took shelter in Casarsa, considered a more tranquil place to wait for the conclusion of the [[Second World War]], a decision common among Italian military families. Here he joined a group of other young enthusiasts of the Friulan language who wanted to give [[Casarsa]] Friulan a status equal to that of [[Udine]], the official regional standard. From May 1944, they issued a magazine entitled ''Stroligùt di cà da l'aga''. In the meantime, Casarsa suffered [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] bombardments and forced enlistments by the [[Italian Social Republic]], as well as [[Partisan (military)|partisan]] activity.

Pasolini tried to distance himself from these events. Starting in October 1943, Pasolini, his mother and other colleagues taught students unable to reach the schools in [[Pordenone]] or Udine. This educational workshop was considered illegal and broke up in February 1944.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martellini |first=Luigi |date=2006 |title=Pier Paolo Pasolini; Retrato de un intelectual |location=Valencia |publisher=Universidad de Valencia |page=28 |isbn=978-84-370-7928-8}}</ref> It was here that Pasolini had his first experience of homosexual attraction to one of his students.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} His brother Guido, aged 19, joined the [[Action Party (Italy)|Party of Action]] and their [[Brigate Osoppo]], taking to the bush near Slovenia. On 12 February 1945, Guido was killed in an ambush planted by the [[Brigate Garibaldi]] serving in the lines of [[Josip Broz Tito]]'s [[Yugoslavia]]n [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrillas]]. This devastated Pasolini and his mother.<ref>Martelini, L. 2006, p. 29</ref>

Six days after his brother's death, Pasolini and others founded the Friulan Language Academy (''Academiuta di lenga furlana''). Meanwhile, on account of Guido's death, Pasolini's father returned to Italy from his detention period in November 1945, settling in Casarsa. That same month, Pasolini graduated from university after completing a final thesis about the work of [[Giovanni Pascoli]] (1855–1912), an Italian poet and [[classical scholar]].<ref>Martelini, L. 2006, p. 33</ref>

In 1946, Pasolini published a small poetry collection, ''I Diarii'' ('The Diaries'), with the Academiuta. In October he traveled to Rome. The following May he began the so-called ''Quaderni Rossi'', handwritten in old school [[exercise book]]s with red covers. He completed a drama in Italian, ''Il Cappellano''. His poetry collection, ''I Pianti'' ('The cries'), was also published by the Academiuta.

=== Rome ===
In January 1950, Pasolini moved to Rome with his mother Susanna to start a new life. He was acquitted of two indecency charges in 1950 and 1952.<ref name="Martelini, L. 2006, p. 48"/> After one year sheltered in a maternal uncle's flat next to [[Fontana delle Tartarughe|Piazza Mattei]], Pasolini and his 59-year-old mother moved to a run-down suburb called [[Rebibbia]], next to a prison, living there for three years; he transferred his Friulan countryside inspiration to this Roman suburb, one of the infamous ''borgate'' where poor [[proletarian]] immigrants lived, often in horrendous sanitary and social conditions. Instead of asking for help from other writers, Pasolini preferred to go his own way.

Pasolini found a job working in the [[Cinecittà]] film studios and sold his books in the ''bancarelle'' ('sidewalk shops') of Rome. In 1951, with the help of the [[Abruzzo|Abruzzese]]-language poet Vittorio Clemente, he found a job as a secondary school teacher in [[Ciampino]], just outside the capital. He had a long commute involving two train changes and earned a meagre salary of 27,000 [[Lira|lire]].

[[File:Pasolini e fellini.jpg|thumb|250px|Pasolini with [[Federico Fellini]] in the late 1950s]]
[[File:Aldo Moro, Pier Paolo Pasolini - Venezia 1964.jpg|thumb|250px|Pasolini with [[Prime Minister of Italy|Prime Minister]] [[Aldo Moro]] at the [[Venice Film Festival]] in 1964]]
[[File:Totò e pasolini.jpg|thumb|250px|Pasolini with [[Totò]] in 1966]]