F. T. Marinetti's Experiments with Acoustic and Visual Poetry: A New Semiotic Approach

Abstract

The present paper identifies evidence of proto-semiotic thinking in Italian Futurist manifestoes and in Marinetti's experimental ‘words-in-freedom’ (parole in liberta). A case is made for approaching visual and acoustic modes of signification in Futurist poetry using Peircean semiotic theory. Readings of iconic and indexical sign-aspects explore the value of quasi-semiotic strategies as reflections of modernity and analyse their role in Futurist pro-war propaganda poetry. Particular attention is paid to semiotic aspects of the movement's ‘Typographical Revolution’, its strategies of codification and the rhetoric of self-signification. Peircean exegesis of various innovative effects throws light on the relationship between iconic and indexical features which earlier semiotic approaches fail to recognize.