Verniana — Jules Verne Studies / Etudes Jules Verne — Volume 6 (2013–2014) — 111–138

Futurisme, un faux ami de Verne

Jean Demerliac

Abstract

There is no discussion of Verne in Marinetti and the Futurists, whose silence is intriguing, given that the Voyages extraordinaires were very influential in Italy and given that the Futurists and Verne shared common interests: the machine, speed, “acceleration of life”, and “modernity”. In a 1976 article, Pär Bergman had raised the problem of Verne’s possible influence on Marinetti’s aesthetic of speed. “Futurism, one of Verne’s False Friends” pursues that hypothesis and shows that the futurist had indeed read Verne. I argue that their reception of Verne has taken the form of an hostile but structuring reaction to the author, which has left traces in Marinetti’s early writings.

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