Fictions of Youth: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Adolescence, Fascisms

‘Bondavalli is to be congratulated for providing such a comprehensive, meticulously researched, and incisive contextual analysis of the treatment and significance of the category of youth in Pasolini’s oeuvre.’

Fabio Vighi, Modern Language Review vol 112:03:2017

“Fictions of Youth adds a vital new chapter to the formidable body of scholarship on Pier Paolo Pasolini. Readers of this book will never again be able to watch a Pasolini film, or read his writings, without a heightened awareness of the fraught presence of his ragazzi and the social, existential, and poetic issues that they raise.” Millicent Marcus, Department of Italian, Yale University

“Simona Bondavalli offers a fresh and compelling perspective on Pasolini’s cultural legacy through the prism of his evolving engagement with the discourse of youth over the course of his career as writer and filmmaker.  Painstakingly researched, astutely argued, and rich in sociohistorical context, this book is an indispensable guide to Pasolini’s artistic process and to the social world he inhabited.”

Aine O'Healy, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Loyola Marymount University

“This is a rich, rigorous, and engaging book, both easy and enjoyable to read. Bondavalli has done outstanding work following her subject across so many different written and artistic genres: poetry, narrative, newspaper columns, philosophical essays, pedagogical treatises, films, and more.”

Colleen Ryan, Department of French and Italian, Indiana University