The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism
Dublin Core
Title
The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism
Subject
The significance and content of F.T. Marinetti's "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism"
Description
F.T. Marinetti’s Founding and Manifesto of Futurism served as the spark for the Futurist movement, a movement which was an “incendiary device, upholding the new values of speed, destruction, and violence necessary for a new age of Italian national grandeur” (Bowler, 763). The entirety of the movement springs from the belief in a new world where “time and space died yesterday” (Rainey, 51). The futurists believed this world was already upon them, brought about, in part, by the creation of the automobile, a machine of “velocity which is eternal and omnipresent” (Rainey, 51). Marinetti opens the manifesto by relating to his audience his experience with an automobile. To Marinetti, the automobile is forceful and violent. The cars are “snorting beasts” of “beautiful shark[s]” whose riders are like “young lions” (Rainey, 51).
Marinetti then transforms the experience of violence and speed of the machine into a political program, 11 points of Futurism. The movement he envisions seeks a change quite different from that of progressive movements of the time. The futurists focus primarily on brute force. They wish “to sing to the love of danger” (Rainey, 51). This love finds for itself the “beauty of speed” and no beauty which “does not consist of struggle” (Rainey, 51). Speed and struggle are made manifest for futurists in the ideas they glorify, including “militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of anarchists, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and contempt for woman” (Marinetti). However, all of this aggressive forward motion must come at a cost, and, for the Futurists, that is tradition. They cast aside “museums and libraries”, “morality”, “feminism and all opportunist or utilitarian cowardice” (Rainey, 51). They wish to save Italy from its “fetid cancer of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and antiquarians” (Rainey, 51). The manifesto purpose is well summarized as introducing “many of the central themes and characteristics of what would become the Futurist aesthetic and political program” (Bowler 767).
Marinetti then transforms the experience of violence and speed of the machine into a political program, 11 points of Futurism. The movement he envisions seeks a change very different from that of progressive movements of the time. The futurists focus on brute force. They wish “to sing to the love of danger” (Marinetti). This love finds for itself the “beauty of speed” and no beauty which “does not consist of struggle” (Marinetti). Speed and struggle are made manifest for futurists in the ideas they glorify, including “militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of anarchists, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and contempt for woman” (Marinetti). However, all of this aggressive forward motion must come at a cost, and, for the Futurists, that is tradition. They cast aside “museums and libraries”, “morality”, “feminism and all opportunist or utilitarian cowardice” (Marinetti). They wish to save Italy from its “fetid cancer of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and antiquarians” (Marinetti). The manifesto's purpose is well summarized as introducing “many of the central themes and characteristics of what would become the Futurist aesthetic and political program” (Bowler 767).
Bowler, Anne. “Politics as Art: Italian Futurism and Fascism.” Theory and Society, vol. 20, no. 6, Springer, 1991, pp. 763–94, http://www.jstor.org/stable/657603.
Marinetti then transforms the experience of violence and speed of the machine into a political program, 11 points of Futurism. The movement he envisions seeks a change quite different from that of progressive movements of the time. The futurists focus primarily on brute force. They wish “to sing to the love of danger” (Rainey, 51). This love finds for itself the “beauty of speed” and no beauty which “does not consist of struggle” (Rainey, 51). Speed and struggle are made manifest for futurists in the ideas they glorify, including “militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of anarchists, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and contempt for woman” (Marinetti). However, all of this aggressive forward motion must come at a cost, and, for the Futurists, that is tradition. They cast aside “museums and libraries”, “morality”, “feminism and all opportunist or utilitarian cowardice” (Rainey, 51). They wish to save Italy from its “fetid cancer of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and antiquarians” (Rainey, 51). The manifesto purpose is well summarized as introducing “many of the central themes and characteristics of what would become the Futurist aesthetic and political program” (Bowler 767).
Marinetti then transforms the experience of violence and speed of the machine into a political program, 11 points of Futurism. The movement he envisions seeks a change very different from that of progressive movements of the time. The futurists focus on brute force. They wish “to sing to the love of danger” (Marinetti). This love finds for itself the “beauty of speed” and no beauty which “does not consist of struggle” (Marinetti). Speed and struggle are made manifest for futurists in the ideas they glorify, including “militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of anarchists, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and contempt for woman” (Marinetti). However, all of this aggressive forward motion must come at a cost, and, for the Futurists, that is tradition. They cast aside “museums and libraries”, “morality”, “feminism and all opportunist or utilitarian cowardice” (Marinetti). They wish to save Italy from its “fetid cancer of professors, archaeologists, tour guides, and antiquarians” (Marinetti). The manifesto's purpose is well summarized as introducing “many of the central themes and characteristics of what would become the Futurist aesthetic and political program” (Bowler 767).
Bowler, Anne. “Politics as Art: Italian Futurism and Fascism.” Theory and Society, vol. 20, no. 6, Springer, 1991, pp. 763–94, http://www.jstor.org/stable/657603.
Creator
Italian Futurism, Tucker Bryant
Source
Marinetti, F. T., Author. Futurist Constitution and Manifesto. Milan, Italy: Poligrafia Italiana, 1909. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021667099/>.
Rainey, Lawrence S, et al. Futurism : An Anthology. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009.
Rainey, Lawrence S, et al. Futurism : An Anthology. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009.
Publisher
Library of Congress
Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Date
1909
Format
PDF
Language
Italian, English
Type
Historical Document
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Printed Material
Physical Dimensions
8.5" X 11"
Collection
Citation
Italian Futurism, Tucker Bryant, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,” ENGL 3460 -- Literature and Utopia, accessed September 19, 2024, https://mapping-nature.org/3460-fall2021/items/show/28.