In 1909 the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the
founding manifesto of Italian Futurism, an inflammatory celebration
of "the love of danger" and "the beauty of speed" that provoked
readers to take aggressive action and "glorify war--the world's
only hygiene." Marinetti's words unleashed an influential artistic
and political movement that has since been neglected owing to its
exaltation of violence and nationalism, its overt manipulation of
mass media channels, and its associations with Fascism. "Inventing
Futurism" is a major reassessment of Futurism that reintegrates it
into the history of twentieth-century avant-garde artistic
movements.
Countering the standard view of Futurism as naively bellicose,
Christine Poggi argues that Futurist artists and writers were far
more ambivalent in their responses to the shocks of industrial
modernity than Marinetti's incendiary pronouncements would suggest.
She closely examines Futurist literature, art, and politics within
the broader context of Italian social history, revealing a
surprisingly powerful undercurrent of anxiety among the
Futurists--toward the accelerated rhythms of urban life, the rising
influence of the masses, changing gender roles, and the
destructiveness of war. Poggi traces the movement from its
explosive beginnings through its transformations under Fascism to
offer completely new insights into familiar Futurist themes, such
as the thrill and trauma of velocity, the psychology of urban
crowds, and the fantasy of flesh fused with metal, among
others.
Lavishly illustrated and unparalleled in scope, "Inventing
Futurism" demonstrates that beneath Futurism's belligerent
avant-garde posturing lay complex and contradictory attitudes
toward an always-deferred utopian future."
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