Embodiment, Corporality, and the Reconstruction of the Italian Body Politic in the Works of F.T
La comunità mutilata: Embodiment, Corporality, and the Reconstruction of the Italian Body Politic in the Works of F.T. Marinetti and Gabriele D'Annunzio By Anthony John Martire A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Italian Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Barbara Spackman, Chair Professor Mia Fuller Professor Harsha Ram Spring 2012 Abstract La comunità mutilata: Embodiment, Corporality, and the Reconstruction of the Italian Body Politic in the works of F.T. Marinetti and Gabriele D’Annunzio By Anthony John Martire Doctor of Philosophy in Italian Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Barbara Spackman, Chair “La comunità mutilata: Embodiment, Corporality, and the Reconstruction of the Italian Body Politic in the works of F.T. Marinetti and Gabriele D’Annunzio”, is a study in how discourses of technological modernism, nationality, and woundedness operate on the longstanding metaphor of the body politic. It focuses on the writings of two of Italy’s most controversial, and influential, figures during and after the First World War. I show how mutilated and prosthetic bodies become powerful political metaphors for both Marinetti and D’Annunzio, which upend and transform the notion of the body politic in posthuman, postliberal and antidemocratic ways. This study is grounded in literary analysis, but draws from political philosophy, art history and rhetoric to examine Marinetti’s futurist manifestos, novels, and poetry (1909-1921), and D’Annunzio’s political speeches relating to the occupation of the city of Fiume (1919-1920). In Chapter 1, I analyze Marinetti’s manifestos produced between 1909 and 1918 in order to demonstrate how Marinetti inaugurates the post-humanist discourse of cybernetics.
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