Pasolini et Morante au miroir de la prophétie : temporalité, vocation, action

The article intends to reread two authors that were bound together by an intense dialogue, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Elsa Morante, by examining how they have taken on some specific forms of prophetic speech. Special focus is placed on Pasolini’s “Trattamento” from La rabbia (1963) and Morante’s lecture entitled “Pro o contro la bomba atomica”: those two writings were composed close in time and both contain a definition of the figure of the poet. The study of both texts allows first to understand how the beginning of the Atomic Era reactivated an apocalyptic temporality favourable for prophetic speech, and how the poet should therefore commit himself to “building the emergency”, by designating his time as the most dangerous of all. Some modalities of prophetic speech are then explored –such as the construction of antagonism, the propensity for harsh declarations, the importance of “presence”, the tension towards action– and alternative outcomes or anticipations suggested by those texts are finally considered.