French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Meazzi, Il fantasma del romanzo. Le futurisme italien et l'écriture romanesque (1909-1929)
Novel and Narrative Prose
Barbara Meazzi,
Il fantasma del romanzo. Le futurisme italien et l'écriture romanesque (1909-1929),
Chambéry, Presses universitaires Savoie Mont Blanc, 2021
430 pp., 30 €, EAN 9782377410590
Despite the lack of a formal theoretical framework, one is forced to admit that Futurism produced prose texts that can legitimately be called "novels." Relying on the insights of contemporary criticism—which is far from unanimous regarding specific works and authors—there are roughly a dozen novels in total dating between 1910 and 1935. For our part, we have counted a significantly higher number of novels written by the Futurists: Palazzeschi, Corra and Ginna, Buzzi, Carli, Cangiullo, as well as Fillia, Brosio, Casavola, Folgore, and Marinetti himself—whose novelistic output has ultimately received little study—all published and circulated various kinds of "novels," anti-novels, novel-poems, and novelistic attempts, with each text showcasing and claiming a distinctively Futurist specificity.
It becomes evident, therefore, that the Futurists appropriated prose writing and attempted to turn it into a testing ground: can we legitimately consider it Futurist? Does a Futurist novelist write a novel or a Futurist novel? Does a Futurist "novel" truly exist?
Table of Contents
Introduction
“The novel is dying, the novel is dead” 11
Part I: The Foundation of Futurism 25
Chapter I
Mafarka the Futurist or the Mythological Imposture of Futurism 27
Chapter II
The Case of Paolo Buzzi, Futurist and Novelist 65
Chapter III
Palazzeschi: Futurist Novelistic Literature between the Incongruous and Perelà 99
Chapter IV
Sam Dunn between Futurist Subversion and the Fantastic 127
Chapter V
Futurism and the Novelistic Paradox in Arnaldo Ginna 157
Part II: “Il romanzo deve morire”: Marinetti and Prose Fiction 185
Chapter VI
The Publishing Industry in the 1910s and 1920s 187
Chapter VII
Writing War: Marinetti and Novelistic Projects 227
Chapter VIII
“Dopo la guerra le forze mancano”:
Marinetti as a Novelist between 1918 and 1920 267
Chapter IX
“... Si chiamava Dina ed era mite”:
Marinetti and Novelistic Experimentation 311
Chapter X
The Experience of Collective Writing:
“Ten Authors in Search of Readers” 347
Epilogue
The End of Experimentation 389
Select Bibliography
A Few Futurist Novelists 401
Index of Names 413
Italian Futurism is widely recognized for its revolutionary manifestos, poetry, and visual arts. Barbara Meazzi's study, Il fantasma del romanzo. Le futurisme italien et l'écriture romanesque (1909-1929), discusses works produced by figures associated with the movement, including Palazzeschi, Corra and Ginna, Buzzi, Carli, Cangiullo, Fillia, Brosio, Casavola, Folgore, and Marinetti. The volume includes chapters on Marinetti, Paolo Buzzi, Palazzeschi, Sam Dunn, and Arnaldo Ginna, as well as the publishing industry in the 1910s and 1920s and collective writing experiments.
The page notes that Futurism produced prose texts and novels dating between 1910 and 1935, with various kinds of novels, anti-novels, novel-poems, and novelistic attempts published and circulated by the Futurists, showcasing a distinctively Futurist specificity. Readers interested in the history of the Italian novel may find this volume relevant.