Apollinaire et le détournement de l’arsenal militaire : la vitesse comme vecteur amoureux

Abstract

Apollinaire’s metaphorical appropriation of the military arsenal can be understood in light of F.T. Marinetti’s speculations on speed, an aesthetic notion integral to Italian Futurism. Apollinaire’s regiment employed the gun of ’75, considered to be a technological phenomenon whose velocity would permit a rapid victory over Germany.  This vector of speed became the vehicle of a new poetics.  Certain Calligrammes can be read as devices that the poet-gunner reconfigures in order to subvert the opposition between the ideal feminine and lust, two temptations that Marinetti proposes to exorcise through the magic of speed.

Dr. Cuillé would like to thank Webster University<http://www.webster.edu/> for the Faculty Research Grant he received in 2014.