A monstruosidade do sagrado em Medeia, de Pasolini

Abstract

This article discusses Pier Paolo Pasolini´s approach to myth and the sacred in cinema and, in the scope of his filmography, in particular, in Medea of 1969, in the light of some theses of what is conventionally called the “monster theory”, of the notion of the unfamiliar according to Freud and its reception. It is not our objective, therefore, to make a comparison between the original Euripedean tragedy and its transposition to the cinema. Nor will an exhaustive analysis of the film from a semiotic point of view or from the theory of cinema. Our interest lies in the reuse of myth and religion, in its hierophanic aspect, as a “desecrating” critique of contemporaneity. To do this, we will use the comments that Pasolini made about the presence of the sacred in his work and to some commentators, as well as to the monster theory and other theoretical contributions, seeking to safeguard the autonomy of the film as an aesthetic expression. This must be kept in mind so as not to overload Pasolin´s adaptation with exogenous theoretical constructs, but also to perceive how cinema can cause tension with the theoretical apparatus itself.