Pinocchio and the Mechanical Body: Luciano Folgore's Papers at the Getty Research Institute Library

This chapter discusses the work of the Futurist poet and broadcaster Luciano Folgore in the light of his emphasis on the mechanical body of Pinocchio. Spanning Folgore’s long and eclectic career, this emphasis is seen in the wider context of a Futurist advocacy of technology and machines in the early years of the twentieth century. Now archived in the John Paul Getty Research Institute and Library in Los Angeles, Folgore’s copious production reveals a serious engagement with the mechanic nature of the puppet, as well as a veritable fixation with Pinocchio’s robotic nose. The puppet’s artificial nose becomes increasingly a marker of his mechanical identity.