Includes bibliographical references (pages [331]-341) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: Reflections of Cinema and Technology in Marinetti, D'Annunzio, and Pirandello -- Film Aesthetics of a Heroic Futurism -- An Aesthetics of War: The (Un)Problematic Screening of Vita futurista -- Velocita: Between Avant-Garde and Narrativity -- Forse che si forse che no: Technological Inflections of a Decadent Text -- Through a 'Futuristic' Lens: D'Annunzio's Cinematic Re-Visions -- The Humoristic Image in Pirandello's Si gira -- Cinema as Humour: The Ottre and the Superfluo.
Summary:
"The emergence of cinema as a predominant form of mass entertainment in the 1910s inspired intellectuals to rethink their definitions of art. The Great Black Spider on Its Knock-Kneed Tripod traces the encounter of Italy's writers with cinema, and in doing so offers vibrant new perspectives on the country's early twentieth-century culture. This comparative study focuses on the immediate responses to this cultural phenomenon of three highly influential intellectuals, each with a competing aesthetic vision - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, founder of Futurism; Gabriele D'Annunzio, leader of Italian Decadentism; and Luigi Pirandello, a father of modern European theatre and theorist of humour. Along with demonstrating how the popularization of the feature-length narrative influenced each author's outlook and theories, Michael Syrimis unravels the extent to which cinema enforced or neutralized the ideological and aesthetic differences between them."--Pub. desc.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.