P. M. Pasinetti
Encyclopedia
Pier Maria Pasinetti (born 1913, Venice
, Italy; died 8 July 2006, Venice, Italy) was a novelist, professor and journalist.
P. M. Pasinetti went to the U.S. in 1935 to study literature and writing. He spent some time at the Louisiana State University
and developed a friendship with "Southern Fellowship" poet and writer Robert Penn Warren
.
. He had been publishing journalism pieces in Italy since the age of eighteen. His first book, three novella
s, was published in 1942. During World War II, he held lectureships in Sweden (Goettingen and Stockholm).
and earned a doctorate in comparative literature
(the first ever awarded) from Yale University
. In 1949, he accepted a professorship in comparative literature and Italian at UCLA. Until his death in 2006, Pasinetti divided his time between Venice, Italy and Beverly Hills, California
. The Beverly Hills "Pasinetti House", built in 1959, was designed by Romanian-born, modernist architect Haralamb H. Georgescu
, sometimes noted as Harlan Georgesco.
Department at UCLA, and is generally acknowledged as a pioneer in the cross-cultural study of literature in the original language. Active as a scholar well into his 90s, Pasinetti spoke on his bi-national identity as an Italian-American writer at Mt Holyoke College (April 2000): "From Venice to LA and Back: Cosmopolitanism, Writing, and Memory"
magazine review of P.M. Pasinetti’s book The Smile on the Face of the Lion (Random House: 1965) said this:
's critically acclaimed Julius CesarPasinetti served as a technical advisor. Julius Cesar (1973) won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Music, Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Picture.
Also produced in 1953, but in Italy, was Michelangelo Antonioni
's evocative film La Signora senza camelie Pasinetti wrote the screenplay with Antonioni, who was related to him by marriage. In 1973, Pasinetti played a small acting part in Francesco Rossi's compelling depiction of Lucky Luciano
, the fabled American mafia boss who ran operations both in the US and Sicily.
Pasinetti taught both comparative literature and Italian at the University of California at Los Angeles for over 40 years. Pasinetti served as a founding editor with Yale's Maynard Mack of the critically acclaimed Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. W.W. Norton & Company has been publishing this standard college text since the mid-1970s. Pasinetti's companion essays on Erasmus' "In Praise of Folly," and Machievelli's classic The Prince guided generations of college students. World Masterpieces is now in a seventh edition. Pasinetti also edited both the first and second editions of Norton's new "global" Anthology of World Literature.
Pasinetti's work "Melodrama" is included in Massimo Riva's 2007 Italian Tales: An Anthology of Contemporary Italian Fiction.
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Italy; died 8 July 2006, Venice, Italy) was a novelist, professor and journalist.
P. M. Pasinetti went to the U.S. in 1935 to study literature and writing. He spent some time at the Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
and developed a friendship with "Southern Fellowship" poet and writer Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
.
Early work
Pasinetti’s first-published fiction in English appeared in the Southern ReviewSouthern Review
The Southern Review, a literary journal co-founded in 1935 by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks and located on the campus of Louisiana State University, publishes fiction, poetry, critical essays, interviews, book reviews, and excerpts from novels in progress by established and emerging writers...
. He had been publishing journalism pieces in Italy since the age of eighteen. His first book, three novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s, was published in 1942. During World War II, he held lectureships in Sweden (Goettingen and Stockholm).
After WWII
After the war Pasinetti returned to the United States in 1946, teaching briefly at Bennington College. He studied with René WellekRené Wellek
René Wellek was a Czech-American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and "fair-minded critic of critics."René Wellek was born and raised in Vienna, speaking Czech and German...
and earned a doctorate in comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
(the first ever awarded) from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. In 1949, he accepted a professorship in comparative literature and Italian at UCLA. Until his death in 2006, Pasinetti divided his time between Venice, Italy and Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
Influence in Venice
Pasinetti's family figures prominently in the artistic and cultural life of Venice. The famous Italian director Francesco Pasinetti was Pasinetti's older brother. Considered a seminal figure in Italian cinema F. Pasinetti played an important role in Italian cinema, writing the first history of Italian filmmaking in the late 1930s. The Pasinetti Prize is awarded annually at the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
. The Beverly Hills "Pasinetti House", built in 1959, was designed by Romanian-born, modernist architect Haralamb H. Georgescu
Haralamb H. Georgescu
Haralamb H. Georgescu , also known as Harlan Georgesco, was a twentieth century Romanian-American modernist architect. He had a 44-year career spanning time in both Romania and the United States before dying in California in 1977....
, sometimes noted as Harlan Georgesco.
Brief Notes on P.M.'s Writing and Professional Life
Pasinetti was a corresponding journalist for Il Corriere della Sera (1960s-1990s), writing the popular column "Dall'estrema America" ("From Farthest America"). Among his novels are: Rosso veneziano or Venetian Red (1957),Il ponte dell'Accademia or From the Academy Bridge (1968), Melodramma or Melodrama (1993). Students of comparative literature may recall the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, versions in the 1970s and 1980s, and most recently, 1997. Pasinetti served as an editor, with lead-anthologist Maynard Mack (Yale). Pasinetti helped found the Comparative LiteratureComparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
Department at UCLA, and is generally acknowledged as a pioneer in the cross-cultural study of literature in the original language. Active as a scholar well into his 90s, Pasinetti spoke on his bi-national identity as an Italian-American writer at Mt Holyoke College (April 2000): "From Venice to LA and Back: Cosmopolitanism, Writing, and Memory"
Review
A 1965 TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine review of P.M. Pasinetti’s book The Smile on the Face of the Lion (Random House: 1965) said this:
"While it lasts, it's a spectacular show of style. Pasinetti, a Venetian who is currently professor of Italian at U.C.L.A., seems to have derived his literary manner in equal measure from Marcel Proust, Ian Fleming, Bernard Shaw and Michelangelo Antonioni—for whom he has done odd jobs of scriptwriting. Like Antonioni, he writes pattern instead of plot, and composes episodes that go nowhere slowly. Like Proust, he wanders for pages in indirect discourse—A tells B what C said to D about E—to populate and inflect his social scene, and sinks continually into interior monologue to liberate a character's stream of consciousness.
Like Shaw, Pasinetti hits off his minor personages with one swift stroke of wit:
"She addresses people always with the air of a lady asking for road directions from behind the wheel of an extremely classy automobile." Like Fleming, he prefers to imagine that all women' are beautiful and that sex is the supreme experience. "Her entire leg was in close contact with his, pressed against him from the hip to the ankle. He moved his hand over her face in a slow, strong caress. 'You know,' she said, 'I don't take tranquilizers any more.' "
With such prose available, there should be no need."
Film
Pasinetti made a range of small but fascinating contributions to filmmaking in Southern California in addition to his teaching, scholarship, and writing. For Joseph L. MankiewiczJoseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
's critically acclaimed Julius CesarPasinetti served as a technical advisor. Julius Cesar (1973) won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Music, Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Picture.
Also produced in 1953, but in Italy, was Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
's evocative film La Signora senza camelie Pasinetti wrote the screenplay with Antonioni, who was related to him by marriage. In 1973, Pasinetti played a small acting part in Francesco Rossi's compelling depiction of Lucky Luciano
Lucky Luciano
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...
, the fabled American mafia boss who ran operations both in the US and Sicily.
Pasinetti taught both comparative literature and Italian at the University of California at Los Angeles for over 40 years. Pasinetti served as a founding editor with Yale's Maynard Mack of the critically acclaimed Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. W.W. Norton & Company has been publishing this standard college text since the mid-1970s. Pasinetti's companion essays on Erasmus' "In Praise of Folly," and Machievelli's classic The Prince guided generations of college students. World Masterpieces is now in a seventh edition. Pasinetti also edited both the first and second editions of Norton's new "global" Anthology of World Literature.
Pasinetti's work "Melodrama" is included in Massimo Riva's 2007 Italian Tales: An Anthology of Contemporary Italian Fiction.
External links
- Clark, William Bedford. “WARREN AND PASINETTI: A STUDY IN FRIENDSHIP.” Clemson University.
- Time, 1965
- Mack, Maynard (General Editor); The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces; Expanded Edition in One Volume. ISBN 0-393-97143-0 • paper • 1997
- Mt. Holyoke College. College Street Journal. April 2000.
- Italian Los Angeles: An Oral History Project. "Italian Journalists - a Little History on P.M. Pasinetti"