Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) is considered the father of Futurism, an early 20th century avant-garde movement in literature and art that promoted modernity. Futurist literature focused on intuition, analogy, irony, abolition of syntax, metrical reform, onomatopoeia, and conciseness. It glorified ideas like militarism, nationalism, and war as it was inspired by technology and machines.
Robert A. Heinlein was an influential American science fiction writer known for works like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Time Enough for Love. His stories explored
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) is considered the father of Futurism, an early 20th century avant-garde movement in literature and art that promoted modernity. Futurist literature focused on intuition, analogy, irony, abolition of syntax, metrical reform, onomatopoeia, and conciseness. It glorified ideas like militarism, nationalism, and war as it was inspired by technology and machines.
Robert A. Heinlein was an influential American science fiction writer known for works like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Time Enough for Love. His stories explored
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) is considered the father of Futurism, an early 20th century avant-garde movement in literature and art that promoted modernity. Futurist literature focused on intuition, analogy, irony, abolition of syntax, metrical reform, onomatopoeia, and conciseness. It glorified ideas like militarism, nationalism, and war as it was inspired by technology and machines.
Robert A. Heinlein was an influential American science fiction writer known for works like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Time Enough for Love. His stories explored
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) is considered the father of Futurism, an early 20th century avant-garde movement in literature and art that promoted modernity. Futurist literature focused on intuition, analogy, irony, abolition of syntax, metrical reform, onomatopoeia, and conciseness. It glorified ideas like militarism, nationalism, and war as it was inspired by technology and machines.
Robert A. Heinlein was an influential American science fiction writer known for works like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Time Enough for Love. His stories explored
1. What is Futurism in Literature? When did it start?
Futurism was a twentieth-century Italian and Russian avant-garde movement in literature
and arts. Italian Futurism began with a manifesto by F. T. Marinetti (1876–1944) titled “Fondazione e Manifesto del Futurismo” (“The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism”), which declared that artistic work without an aggressive element could not be considered a masterpiece . Futurism promoted literature that was concise and fast-paced in language and length and packed with violence, intensity, youth and dynamic expressions of life. This was because the futurist movement merged with the historical setting in Italy where the advent of World War II (1939-1945) and industrialisation led to literature that was inspired by technology and fast powerful machines. This is also why futurist writers glorified ideas of militarism, nationalism and war.
2. What are its main features? Who is considered the father of Futurism?
Futurist literature focuses on seven different characteristics:
Intuition Futurists believed that literature should be driven by intuition and therefore be a product of spontaneous creation. Futurists also believed that art has its own language and should be expressed in its own language, free from intellectual approaches and extrapolation.
Analogy Futurists strongly believe that under the surface, everything in life is interconnected to each other and such is the reality of life. Futurists referred to these connections as analogies and the aim of futuristic literature was to discover and unveil these analogies.
Irony Futurists encouraged the use of Irony in literature as they believed that it was a forgotten tradition that should be renewed by contemporary writers.
Abolition of syntax Futurists believed that formal syntax was too restrictive for modern writers. While this did not mean that syntax was completely abolished, writers were allowed the freedom to remodify syntax and experiment with vocabulary and wordplay. New words and combinations were considered to be at the heart of futuristic creativity.
The rejection of formal syntax rules led to a relaxation in using adjectives, adverbs, tense and punctuation. More attention was paid to creating variations within typography.
Metrical reform Futurists rejected all forms of meter in poetry. Now you might be wondering if their work lacked any meter, then was all futuristic poetry essentially just free verse? Futurists believed that free verse was too traditional and relied heavily on syntax. Hence, they began to use words as a unit in poetry by making them a structural element that replaced metric patterns.
Onomatopoeia Futurists advocated the use of different types of onomatopoeia.
Some forms of onomatopoeia were more realistic representations of sound, such as 'boom', 'splash' or 'clash'. Others were more experimental and abstract in nature such as using random words to represent sounds regardless of the actual meaning of the word. This also meant ascribing sounds to objects that typically do not produce sound, such as the internal motions of the soul.
Lyricism Futuristic literature is characterised by conciseness and compactness in language that was almost unnatural. Hence, Futurists rejected lyricism.
This explains why most futuristic works are poetry and why there are no futuristic novels in existence. Futurists felt like novels were just too long.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) is considered the father of Futurism.
3. Robert Heinlein
3.1. Who was he?
Robert A. Heinlein was a science fiction writer of short stories and novels. He wrote for juveniles and adults, combining his interests in science, technology, and the military. Heinlein created numerous best-sellers, won several Hugo awards, and had a large influence on modern science fiction.
The major themes of his work were social: Radical individualism, libertarianism, religion, the relationship between physical and emotional love, and speculation about unorthodox family relationships. His iconoclastic approach to these themes led to wildly divergent perceptions of his works.
3.2. What were his most well known literary works?
- Starship Troopers First published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1959, Starship Troopers may be Heinlein’s best-known and most widely-read work.
- Stranger in a Strange Land
Originally published in 1961. The first science fiction novel on the New York Times Bestseller list, Stranger in a Strange Land has been named by the Library of Congress as one of the “88 Books that Shaped America,” alongside such titles as The Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, and The Sound and the Fury.
- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
A nominee for the Nebula and winner of the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was first published in 1966.
- The Puppet Masters
Originally published in 1951, The Puppet Masters is one of the best-known (and best-regarded) of Heinlein’s early novels.
- The Year of the Jackpot
This distinctly Heinleinian novella was the cover story of the March 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. It centers around a statistician who finds love at what just might be the end of the world.
- Time Enough for Love
First published in 1973. The work was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1974.
