Visualizing Italy through a Militant Lens: F.T. Marinetti and Italy’s Military Experience

The role of the military and of Italy’s wars had a profound influence on the work of the Futurist leader F.T. Marinetti. Specifically, I will discuss Marinetti’s vision of Italy as depicted in the person of the soldier and of Italian society at war. A recurring theme in Marinetti’s work is the soldier as the uncomplicated and dutiful citizen who answers the call of the state to defend the nation and puts aside whatever differences separated him from his fellow Italians in civilian life, most especially class and region. When Marinetti wrote about society more generally, he similarly focused on the issues of duty and sacrifice. Such themes bind Marinetti’s work from the Liberal to the Fascist era.