Legitimizing the Artist: Manifesto Writing and European Modernism 1885-1915

306 Pages·2003·1.656 MB·English

by  Luca Somigli

LEGITIMIZING THE ARTIST:
MANIFESTO WRITING AND EUROPEAN MODERNISM
1885–1915
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the production of literary and
cultural manifestoes enjoyed a veritable boom and accompanied the rise of many
avant-garde movements. Legitimizing the Artist considers this phenomenon as a
response to a more general crisis of legitimation that artists had been struggling with
for decades. The crucial question for artists, confronted by the conservative values
of the dominant bourgeoisie and the economic logic of triumphant capitalism, was
how to justify their work in terms that did not reduce art to a mere commodity.
In this work Luca Somigli discusses several European artistic movements –
decadentism, Italian futurism, vorticism, and imagism – and argues for the centrality
of the works of F.T. Marinetti in the transition from a fin de siècle decadent poetics,
exemplified by the manifestoes of Anatole Baju, to a properly avant-garde project
aiming at a complete renewal of the process of literary communication and the
abolition of the difference between producer and consumer. It is to this challenge
that the English avant-garde artists, and Ezra Pound in particular, responded with
their more polemical pieces. Somigli suggests that this debate allows us to rethink
the relationship between modernism and post-modernism as complementary ways
of engaging the loss of an organic relationship between the artist and his social
environment.
(Toronto Italian Studies)
LUCA SOMIGLI is an associate professor in the Department of Italian Studies at
the University of Toronto.
LEGITIMIZING THE ARTIST:
MANIFESTO WRITING AND EUROPEAN MODERNISM
1885–1915
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Luca Somigli
LEGITIMIZING
THE ARTIST
Manifesto Writing and
European Modernism
1885–1915
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2003
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-3761-5
Printed on acid-free paper
Toronto Italian Studies
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Somigli, Luca
Legitimizing the artist : manifesto writing and European modernism,
1885–1915 / Luca Somigli.
(Toronto Italian studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-3761-5
1. Modernism (Art) – Europe. 2. Modernism (Literature) – Europe.
3. Futurism (Art) – Europe. 4. Futurism (Literary movement) – Europe.
5. Avant-garde (Aesthetics) – Europe – History – 19th century. 6. Avant-
garde (Aesthetics) – Europe – History – 20th century. 7. Revolutionary
literature – History and criticism. I. Title. II. Series.
N6758.5.M63S64 2003 700’.94’09041 C2003-904838-1
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to
Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Artist in Modernity 3
Haloes and Auras 3
What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Manifestoes? 21
1 Strategies of Legitimation: The Manifesto from Politics to
Aesthetics 29
a history of the manifesto (1550–1850) 29
From the Prince to the People: The Voice of Authority and
the Voice of Resistance 29
The Manifesto and the Making of the Intellectual 46
how to be a decadent: art, politics, and society in
the manifestoes of anatole baju 57
A Crisis in Communication 57
Anatole Baju, the Impresario of Decadence 65
Quintessence or Institution? Language and the Autonomy of the
Aesthetic 76
The Unrecoverable Halo: The Aristocrat and the Clown 87
2 A Poetics of Modernity: Futurism as the Overturning of
Aestheticism 93
from decadentism to futurism 96
Marinetti 1898–1908: Portrait of the Futurist as a Young
Decadent 96
vi Contents
The First Manifesto: Marinetti’s ‘Modernolatry’ between
Decadence and Futurism 108
Toward an Impermanent Work of Art 127
advertising futurism 149
3 Anarchists and Scientists: Futurism in England and the
Formation of Imagism 162
‘crazy exploding pictures’: the reception of futurism in
england, 1910–1914 166
Futurism in the British Press 166
From Propaganda to Pedagogy: ‘The Exhibitors to the Public’ 174
Flux and Form: Futurism and Vorticism 181
the invention of imagism: ezra pound and the rhetoric of
the avant-garde 190
The Artist as Scientist: A Model of Literary Communication 190
The Art of Not Making Manifestoes: Flint’s ‘Imagisme’ and Pound’s
‘A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste’ 203
Conclusion 217
Notes 223
References 267
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the numerous friends and colleagues who have
been most generous with their support, and who have read and com-
mented on various drafts of the chapters of this volume. Material in
chapters 1 and 3 was first developed as part of my doctoral disserta-
tion at SUNY-Stony Brook; I thank the thesis director Hugh Silverman,
and the members of the dissertation committee Krin Gabbard, Luigi
Fontanella, and Sandy Petrey, for their help and guidance. As the
project developed, I greatly benefited from the critical insights, the
comments and suggestions, and above all the patience and encourage-
ment of Ken Bartlett, Rocco Capozzi, Manuela Gieri, Francesco Guar-
diani, Elizabeth Legge, Michael Lettieri, Ernesto Livorni, Francesco
Loriggio, Jay Macpherson, Mario Moroni, John Picchione, Lucia Re,
and Max Statkiewicz. I also thank the two anonymous readers of the
manuscript for the University of Toronto Press for their useful and per-
ceptive advice. My most heartfelt gratitude goes also to Jason Blake,
Paolo Chirumbolo, Elana Commisso, Patrizia Di Vincenzo, Franco Gal-
lippi, and Marisa Ruccolo, who at different times were my research
assistants. Special thanks to my brother Paolo and to Chiara for their
invaluable help in musical matters.
I would also like to acknowledge the generous financial support
given to this research project by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada and by the Connaught Fund. The Human-
ities Research Centre of Oxford Brookes University provided much
welcome logistic support during a research trip to England; I am espe-
cially grateful to Steven Matthews for his friendly advice and for
bringing the Visiting Scholar Programme to my attention. At the Uni-
versity of Toronto Press, I was very fortunate to work with an out-
viii Acknowledgments
standing and experienced professional team, in particular Ron
Schoeffel, Anne Laughlin, and Ruth Pincoe. Finally, I am grateful to the
community of Victoria College for providing the best collegial environ-
ment in which to do research and write.
On a personal note, this book could not have been written without
the love of my parents, and without Arthur, who helped just by being
there.
The book is dedicated to Sue, with love.