Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: Biography and Work

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti He was a writer, poet and dramatist creator of Futurism, avant-garde artistic movement of the early twentieth century. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1876; and died in Bellagio, Italy, in 1944. He studied in Alexandria, France and Italy. He obtained a degree in law from the University of Pavia, but never exercised the right.

Marinetti devoted himself exclusively to literature and on February 20, 1909 published his famous Manifeste du Futurisme , In the diary Le Figaro from Paris. His literary training was almost exclusively French. In Milan where he also lived, he collaborated with the magazine in French Antologie revue .

It was in this magazine where he had his initial contacts with avant-garde expressions. In addition to his three futurist manifestos, his main works are: The 5 stars , The old sailors , The conquete des étoiles , Destruction Y Poemi simultanei futuristi .

He is also the author of the plays Elettricità sessuale Y Le roi Bombance, and the books Mafarka il futurista , The battaglia di Tripoli Y Parole in libertá , among others.

Biography

First years

The first years of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's life were spent in Alexandria with his parents Enrico Marinetti and Amalia Grolli. There he studied his first studies and part of the baccalaureate, which ended in Paris.

He graduated in law at the University of Pavia in 1899, but instead of practicing law he devoted himself entirely to literature.

Literary beginnings

During his university studies is when his love for literature emerges in him. But before, at age 17, he had already founded the student magazine in his school Papyrus , where he publishes the works of Émile Zola, considered scandalous.

This earned him a threat of expulsion by the Jesuit fathers who ran the institution. Then, his family decided to send him to Paris where he finished high school in 1893.

Deaths in the family

Then he enrolled in the Faculty of Law of the University of Pavia along with his older brother Leone. Soon after, he died at the age of 21, which was a blow for Marinetti.

The writer continues to experiment in various fields of literature (poetry, theater, narrative, words in freedom). He will not spend much time of mourning for his brother when his mother dies, who always supported him in his literary career.

Poetry

Marinetti wrote in French several books of poetry of free verse, that precede the literary concept of"words in freedom". He also wrote several works in Italian and developed the mystique of superman, which is inspired by the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.

One of his famous poems, Les vieux marins (The old sailors - 1897), was very commented and celebrated by other famous poets of the time, like Gustave Kahn and Catulle Mendés.

With this small poem he won the prize of the Samedis populaires. In the year 1898 the Italian poet began a cycle of poetry writing symbolist cut published in several major magazines.

He published the poem in 1902 The conquete des étoiles and the volume of verses Destruction in 1904. It is during this same period that he wrote the play Le roi Bombance . That same year (1905) he founded the magazine in Milan Poetry , together with the Italian symbolist poet Sem Benelli.

Emergence of robots and futurism

In 1909 Marinetti published Elettricità sessuale , one of his first plays. In this work appeared the first mention of robots (with another name, of course). Ten years later, the Czech novelist Karel Čapek called these machines with that term.

This same year, in full creative stage, he published the Manifesto of Futurism in the French newspaper Le Figaro . In 1910, he published the second manifesto in that same newspaper. The third technical manifesto of futurism was written in 1912.

The manifestos describe a new civilization driven by machines and speed. In these, Marinetti defends the use of violence and justifies war, while considering them elements of individual affirmation.

New expressiveness

The writer conceives a new expressiveness that breaks with the syntax and suppresses the adjective, the adverb and the punctuation marks. In this way he wants to capture the reader's attention and express his perception of modern life.

Marinetti conceived the manifesto as an original literary genre and this will be considered among his best works.

For several years he toured Europe and America to spread the futurist current, offering lectures and poetic readings. With this he managed to hook many followers in many countries.

Literary expressions

Through numerous works, poems and essays he exposed his literary genres. He even explored the novelistic genre with works like Mafarka il futurista (1910). A year later he published The battaglia di Tripoli , and in 1912 he published Parole in libertá .

In the theater he presented the"synthetic"works; of this genre stands out Zang Tumb Tumb (1914), among others of an experimental nature. In this poem he describes the battle of Adrianople, which Marinetti covered as a war correspondent.

Its content is bloody and raw, with descriptions of bomb explosions and machine gun bursts. But he manages to transmit these sensations through typographical resources and the way of diagramming the pages.

He was the head of the futurist movement, which he developed and promoted in various works, anthologies, essays, etc. Around 1920, the fury that initially fueled Futurism as a literary current was extinguished.

Official poet of Italian fascism

With the appearance of new vanguard movements, Marinetti began to sympathize with the ideas of fascism, to the point that he came to be considered the official poet of the Benito Mussolini regime.

The writer defended the use of force and military actions and came to occupy important positions within the dictatorial regime of Mussolini. He was a member of the Italian Academy, coincidentally founded by the fascists.

During this period he wrote and published the works Futuristic Democrazia (1919) and, later, Futurism and fascism . Then he published the dramas in 1927 Prigionieri e Vulcani and the story Scatole d'amore in conser , and in 1933 he published Poemi simultanei futuristi (1933).

All his literary success and prestige declined during the resistance to the regime in Italy and he died in oblivion in 1944, but remained faithful to fascism.

Some of his main works

- The 5 stars.

- The old sailors.

- The conquete des étoiles.

- Destruction.

- Poemi simultanei futuristi .

- Elettricità sessuale.

- Le roi Bombance.

- Mafarka il futurista.

- The battaglia di Tripoli.

- Parole in libertá.

References

1. Gómez, Llanos (2008), The Futurist Dramaturgy of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Vigo, Editorial Academia del Hispanismo. Retrieved on February 28, 2018 from academiaeditorial.com
2. Rosalía Torrent. Universitat Jaume I. Castelló. One hundred years of futurism. Retrieved from repositori.uji.es
3. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Consulted of museodellarte.it
4. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Consulted of biografiasyvidas.com
5. The Futurist Manifesto. Consulted by bbc.com
6. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Consulted on es.wikipedia.org