Paolo Volponi’s La macchina mondiale as a cybernetic utopia: The limits of a solely allegorical interpretation

Abstract

For Volponi’s characters, the condition of alienation is often determined by the industrial and post-industrial development, to which they oppose a lyrical and irrational language and an unwillingness to conform to social norms. Yet, in La macchina mondiale, the protagonist Anteo Crocioni derives his alienation from the techno-utopia he develops. Ostracized by his rural community, Anteo revels in the belief that human beings, created by mechanical automata, are complex machines meant to develop more sophisticated creatures to further their evolution. Volponi’s critics have interpreted Anteo’s theories as an allegory of an underlying socio-political commentary: the protagonist’s troubled mental situation would therefore make him a prophet, but also render his scientific elaboration meaningless—that is, unless it is interpreted through the lens of the socio-political allegory that the presence of Volponi behind the character justifies. Anteo’s treatise, though, is not just the product of a delusional mind. In fact, it relies on some of the leading theories in cybernetics, which this work aims to identify and analyze in order to propose a new interpretation of this novel that goes beyond an allegorical reading and recognizes, instead, the crucial importance that cybernetic theories played in Volponi’s literary elaboration.