SOURCE: "La meglio gioventù: The Best Youth," in Pier Paolo Pasolini, Twayne Publishers, 1982, pp. 48-59.

In the following essay, Friedrich analyzes the imagery of Narcissus in Pasolini's Fruilian poems of La meglio gioventù.

La meglio gioventù [The best youth] is the volume, published in 1954, that brings together the entire first cycle of Friulian poems: most of the Poesie a Casarsa (1941-48); the Suite furlana (1944-49); a group of poems directly linked to the events of the Resistance entitled Il Testament Coran (1947-52); Appendice (1950-53); and Romancero (1953). The latter group includes, under the subtitle / Colús—the surname of the poet's mother's family—the "humble" story of the Friulian land.

The presentation in a single volume of a number of poetic works, written during different periods even if thematically and linguistically tied, seems to indicate the author's desire to clarify a posteriori the psychological and cultural structure of his...