Pier Paolo Pasolini and educating through poetry

To mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Professor Giacomo Jori, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society of Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), gave a lecture dedicated to the Italian poet at Società Dante Alighieri in Locarno, and recalled his role as an educator during an episode of "Alphaville" (Rete Due - RSI).

During the conference "Pasolini educatore e poeta" (Pasolini, teacher and poet), Professor Giacomo Jori wanted to remember the figure of Pier Paolo Pasolini, emphasising his role as a teacher among his many other roles. "I chose this theme because it encourages us to engage with Pasolini, a highly debated and frequently referenced figure often overlooked in terms of actual reading. The topic of education compels us to examine and reconsider his work as a whole. Pasolini was a teacher in the 1940s while he was in Friuli with his mother. He never ceased to see himself as an educator; in fact, one of his last books, 'Le lettere luterane', opens with a brief pedagogical essay."
For Pasolini, poetry was one of the pedagogical tools par excellence: "Poetry serves as an educational and training institution. From a young age, Pasolini wrote essays discussing how to engage children with poetry. He frequently mentioned that during his school years, he encountered the works of Rimbaud, which influenced his anti-fascist beliefs. Thus, it was poetry that shaped his political education."

Pasolini's case shows how poetry can also be a tool for civic education, as Professor Jori reminds us: "Freedom is a core value of poetry and a principle that Pasolini deeply believed in. It is essential to consider a historical fact: Pasolini was just twenty years old at the end of World War II and faced the challenge of rebuilding a country devastated by war and fascism. He concluded that the key to rebuilding Italy was education. 1942 he wrote, 'Educating: this will perhaps be the highest and most humble task entrusted to our generation.' His generation, therefore, believed in the value of literature, considering it a means to carry out that educational process that was felt to be a generational duty".

Although the civil element is a constant inspiration for Pasolini's work, it emerges in two works in particular, as the USI professor reminds us: "The two works in which the civil element is particularly present are 'Le ceneri di Gramsci' and 'Trasumanar e organizzar'. However, Pasolini's poetry is generally pervaded by this element which, although not always appearing explicitly, never abandons his writing".

The full interview with Professor Giacomo Jori on "Alphaville" (Rete Due - RSI) is available at the following link. (Italian only)