Abstract

This article examines the first representations of the cinema in early XX century Italian literature (1897-1932). It focuses in particular on one fantastical motif: that of the spectator who is so overwhelmed by the moving images that s/he faints, then wakes up inside the film itself. Through these instances, the article suggests, it becomes possible to map out indirectly - in the way one might track footprints - the feelings and thoughts of an evermore fleeting figure: the first Italian film spectator.