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Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry

F. T. Marinetti’s “words-in-freedom”

Abstract

This paper offers close readings of canonical works of Italian Futurist visual poetry, focussing on the fusion, for propaganda purposes, of radical forms of visual and acoustic iconicity with politicized modes of indexicality. A detailed contextual interpretation of a milestone iconic-cum-indexical device in F. T. Marinetti’s war epic Zang tumb tumb (1914) serves as an introduction to Futurism’s preoccupation with the advantages of exploiting ingenious new forms of semiosis for their nationalist impact. Subsequent commentaries on four shaped war-poems by Marinetti bring out the variety of ways in which iconic representations of battle experience are harnessed to Italy’s Irredentist and Interventionist causes. The poems’ impressive arsenal of iconic effects is shown to reinforce their indexical function as war-reportage, while Marinetti’s dual authority as renowned modernist poet and eyewitness to a number of historically prestigious battles underwrites Italian Futurism’s patriotic campaign to persuade fellow countrymen to abandon their neutralist stance.

Abstract

This paper offers close readings of canonical works of Italian Futurist visual poetry, focussing on the fusion, for propaganda purposes, of radical forms of visual and acoustic iconicity with politicized modes of indexicality. A detailed contextual interpretation of a milestone iconic-cum-indexical device in F. T. Marinetti’s war epic Zang tumb tumb (1914) serves as an introduction to Futurism’s preoccupation with the advantages of exploiting ingenious new forms of semiosis for their nationalist impact. Subsequent commentaries on four shaped war-poems by Marinetti bring out the variety of ways in which iconic representations of battle experience are harnessed to Italy’s Irredentist and Interventionist causes. The poems’ impressive arsenal of iconic effects is shown to reinforce their indexical function as war-reportage, while Marinetti’s dual authority as renowned modernist poet and eyewitness to a number of historically prestigious battles underwrites Italian Futurism’s patriotic campaign to persuade fellow countrymen to abandon their neutralist stance.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Signergy 1
  6. Part I. Theoretical approaches
  7. Literary practices and imaginative possibilities 23
  8. The bell jar, the maze and the mural 47
  9. Iconicity as meaning miming meaning and meaning miming form 73
  10. A view from the margins 101
  11. Part II. Visual iconicity
  12. Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry 129
  13. Taking a line for a walk 157
  14. Iconicity and naming in E. E. Cummings’s poetry 179
  15. Bunyan and the physiognomy of the Wor(l)d 193
  16. From icon to index and back 211
  17. The poem as icon of the painting 225
  18. Part III. Iconicity and historical change
  19. Iconicity and etymology 243
  20. Iconicity typological and theological 259
  21. An iconic, analogical approach to grammaticalization 279
  22. Part IV. Iconicity and positionality
  23. Iconic signs, motivated semantic networks, and the nature of conceptualization 301
  24. Iconicity and subjectivisation in the English NP 319
  25. Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures 347
  26. Part V. Iconicity and translation
  27. Translation, iconicity, and dialogism 367
  28. Iconicity and developments in translation studies 387
  29. Author index 413
  30. Subject index 417
Signergy
This chapter is in the book Signergy
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.9.09whi

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Signergy 1
  6. Part I. Theoretical approaches
  7. Literary practices and imaginative possibilities 23
  8. The bell jar, the maze and the mural 47
  9. Iconicity as meaning miming meaning and meaning miming form 73
  10. A view from the margins 101
  11. Part II. Visual iconicity
  12. Iconic and indexical elements in Italian Futurist poetry 129
  13. Taking a line for a walk 157
  14. Iconicity and naming in E. E. Cummings’s poetry 179
  15. Bunyan and the physiognomy of the Wor(l)d 193
  16. From icon to index and back 211
  17. The poem as icon of the painting 225
  18. Part III. Iconicity and historical change
  19. Iconicity and etymology 243
  20. Iconicity typological and theological 259
  21. An iconic, analogical approach to grammaticalization 279
  22. Part IV. Iconicity and positionality
  23. Iconic signs, motivated semantic networks, and the nature of conceptualization 301
  24. Iconicity and subjectivisation in the English NP 319
  25. Metrical inversion and enjambment in the context of syntactic and morphological structures 347
  26. Part V. Iconicity and translation
  27. Translation, iconicity, and dialogism 367
  28. Iconicity and developments in translation studies 387
  29. Author index 413
  30. Subject index 417
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