Futurist Manifesto

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The Futurist Manifesto, written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was published in French in Le Figaro on 20 February, 1909. It launched an art movement, Futurism, that rejected the past, celebrated speed, machinery and industry and sought the modernisation and cultural rejuvenation of Italy.

The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism[1] allows a sharper comprehension of a cultural evolution in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century, meant as an intellectual avant-garde. \

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The limit of Italian literature at the end of "Ottocento" (19th century), its lack of strong contents, its quiet and passive laisser faire, were fought by Futurists (see art. 1, 2, 3) and their reaction includes the use of excess, which will prove the existence of a dynamic surviving Italian intellectual class.

In the period in which industry is growing of importance in all Europe, Futurists need to confirm that Italy is present, has an industry, has the power to take part in the new experience, will find the superior essence of progress by its major symbols: the car and its speed (see art. 4). Nationalism is never openly declared, but is evident.

Also, futurists intend confirming that literature will not be overtaken by progress: it will absorb progress in its evolution and will demonstrate that progress had to be the way it is because Man will use progress to sincerely let his nature explode, which is made of instincts. Man is reacting against the potentially overwhelming strength of progress, and shouts out his centrality. Man will use speed, not the opposite (see art. 5 and 6).

Poetry, the voice of spirit, will help Man to consent his soul be part of all that (see art. 6 and 7), indicating a new concept of beauty that will refer to human instinct of fight.

The sense of history cannot be left aside: this is a special moment, many things are going to change into new forms and new contents, but man will be able to pass through these variations, (see art. 8) bringing with himself what comes from the beginning of civilisation.

One of the most particular articles is article 9, in which war is defined as a sort of need for the health of human spirit, a purification that allows and benefits idealism. Some have said that this apology of militarism by Futurists influenced the ideology of Fascism.

The heavy provocation included in article 10 is a logical consequence of the preceding articles.

This manifesto was published well before any of the events of the 20th Century, which are commonly suggested as a potential concrete meaning behind this text, had happened. Many of them could not even be imagined yet. The Russian Revolution of 1917 is the first of those revolutions "described" by article 11, but it happened several years later.

The violent breaking effect of the manifesto is even more evident in the original Italian in which the manifesto was written. Not one of the words used is casual; if not the precise form, at least the roots of these words recall those more frequently used in Middle Age, particularly in Rinascimento (Renaissance).