Pasolini’s Valorization of the Orient through Marxism in the Movie Arabian Nights

Abstract

This paper argues that Pasolini includes the Orient as a cultural character in his movie though other critics believe Pasolini stereotypes the Orient. It is not Orientalism through which to discuss the film. This article reads the movie through Marxism to claim that Pasolini includes the Orient as a cultural character. His film creates very different symmetries from those in the Nights, emphasizing the relationship between the proletariat couple Zumurrud and Nur-ed-Din on the one hand and the bourgeois Arab sheikhs on the other, and ends by celebrating the union of Zumurrud and Nur-ed-Din victorious over the tyranny of their bourgeois Arab sheikhs through the lens of Marxism which is the methodology of this paper. The findings of the study show that through Arabian Nights it seems Pasolini materializes the promise of Marx and creates a revolution by making the slave Zumurrud the king and the protagonist of his film.

Keywords

• Pasolini
• Culture character
• Marxism
• Valorization
• the Orient