Contribution to the Analysis of Two Pasolini Plays–Calderón and Svinjac (Porcile)

Abstract

This paper examines the distinctive characteristics encountered in the plays written by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Calderón and Svinjac (Porcile), whose translations were published in 2022 by the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb. Among the themes presented in the plays, it is crucial to highlight the theme of the unconscious, the motif of Pasolini’s family situation reproduced in his plays, the related motif of incest, as well as the motif of rebellion against power. The theme of the unconscious has always been present in his oeuvre, in his early poems, such as those dedicated to his mother, then in his youthful plays, in which his family situation is often reproduced, and also in his films, particularly in his “mythological” films. His relationship with the mother acquires an incestuous undertone, especially in the films such as Mamma Roma, but also in the tragedy Calderón, in which the incestuous relationships mother-son and father-daughter are implied and realised in dreams. The motif of rebellion against power is related to the motif of freely chosen death as the ultimate form of expression in Svinjac (Porcile), in which the protagonist’s suicide evokes and foreshadows Pasolini’s tragic death.