Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Fall 2009 Harvard Futurisms seminar

Greetings all, here are the first four weeks of the seminar, as per the syllabus, but with the links active:


1 – sept. 2 - introduction: futurism and the avant-gardes

2 – sept. 14 the art of the manifesto I


­Marjorie Perloff, “Violence and Precision,” pp. 81-114 in The Futurist Moment.
­ Martin Puchner, Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes, (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 2005), pp. 1-32, 69-106.
­ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Communist Manifesto” available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
­ Jean Moreas, “Le Symbolisme” [1886]; the French original is available at http://www.berlol.net/chrono/chr1886a.htm (English copy at end of syllabus)
­ F. T. Marinetti, "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” [1909], “Against Passéist Venice" [1910], "Futurist Synthesis of War" [1914], "Selections from Le Futurisme" [1911-1915], “The New Religion-Morality of Speed” [1916]
­ D. Burliuk, V. Mayakovsky, et al., "Slap in the Face of Public Taste" [1912], in Lawton and Eagle, or available at http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/
­Guillaume Apollinaire, “Futurist Anti-Tradition” [1913]


3 – sept. 21 the art of the manifesto II
­ Martin Puchner, Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes, (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 2005), pp. 107-195.
­Valentine de Saint Pont, “Futurist Manifesto of Lust” (1913)
­ Volt, “Futurist Manifesto of Women’s Fashion” (1919)
­ Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, et al. “Vorticist Manifestos” from Blast [1914] available at http://www.davidson.edu/academic/english/Little_Magazines/Blast/manifesto.html
­Tristan Tzara, “The Manifesto of Mr. Antipyrine” [1916] available at http://www.peak.org/~dadaist/English/Graphics/mr_antipyrine.html
­ Andre Breton, “The Manifesto of Surrealism” [1924] available at http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/F98/SurrealistManifesto.htm
­ Louis Aragon et al., “A Surrealist Manifesto” [1925] available at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1925surrealism.html
­ Oswald de Andrade, “Manifesto da Poesia Pau Brasil” [1924] available in Portuguese at http://www.antropofagia.com.br/antropofagia/pt/man_paubrasil.html; available in English at http://blindelephant.blogspot.com/2006/03/ver-com-ohlos-livres.html.
­ Oswald de Andrade, “Anthropophagist Manifesto” [1928] available in Portuguese at http://www.antropofagia.com.br/antropofagia/pt/man_antropo.html; available in English at http://www.feastofhateandfear.com/archives/andrade.html.
­ Guy Debord et al., “Situationist Manifesto” [1960] available at  http://www.perdigiorno.net/manifesto/situationistmanifesto1960.pdf
­ George Maciunas, “Fluxus Manifesto”  [1963] available at http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/gmaciunas-manifesto.html
--assignment: find a manifesto published during the past 30 years and come prepared to briefly present it


For an overall survey, you may consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_manifesto. A comprehensive electronic catalogue of manifestos is found at http://www.391.org/manifestos/.


4sept. 28 futurist poetics and poetry
­ F. T. Marinetti, "Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature" [1912], "Geometric and Mechanical Splendor and the Numerical Sensibility" [1914] and "Destruction of Syntax" Manifesto [1913]
­ V. Shklovsky, “The Resurrection of the Word” [1914]
­ A. Kruchenykh and V. Khlebnikov, “[The Word as Such],” “The Letter as Such,” and “Declaration of the Word as Such” [1913/1930], in Lawton and Eagle
­ V. Khlebnikov, “The Trumpet of the Martians” [1916], in Lawton and Eagle
­ Nikolai Aseev et al, “What Does Lef Fight for?”  [1923], in Lawton and Eagle
­ Lef, “Whom Does Lef Wrangle With?”  [1923], in Lawton and Eagle
­ Lef, “Whom Does Lef Warn?”  [1923], in Lawton and Eagle
­ Sergei Tret’iakov, “Lef’s Tribune” [1923], in Lawton and Eagle
­F. T. Marinetti, Selected Poems and Related Prose inc. Zang Tumb Tumb [tba]
­In Futurism – An Anthology: poems by Marinetti (Bombardment), Soffici (Café), Boccioni (High-Society Shoe + Urine), Carrà (A Medium’s Musings), Govoni (The Diver), Goretti (Petroleum Song)
­ Vladimir Mayakovsky, selected poetry in English translation available at http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/mayakovsky/
­Roman Jakobson, “Futuristic verses” [1914]
­Manuel Maples Arce, Metropolis, trans. John Dos Passos [1929]


For a sampling of futurist styles of performance of poetic texts, listen to some of the text and sound files at http://www.ubu.com/sound/marinetti.html; http://www.ubu.com/sound/depero.html; http://www.ubu.com/sound/russian_futurists.html. On the Ubu web site, check out in particular Marinetti, Chlebnikov, Ball, Krucenych, Maiakovsky, Tzara.


5 – oct. 5 the futurist book :: the futurist magazine
­Marjorie Perloff, “The Word Set Free,” pp. 117-160 in The Futurist Moment
­ F. T. Marinetti, Les Mots en liberté futuristes [1919]
­ Vladimir Mayakovsky with El Lissitzky, For the Voice [1923]
­online editions of La Balza, Lacerba, Dinamo, Dinamo futurista, Poesia, Sant’Elia, Vela Latina available at http://circe.lett.unitn.it/
­online exhibition of futurist publications by Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence available at http://expo.khi.fi.it/gallery/futurism/greeting/view?set_language=en
­Maurizio Scudiero’s web essay on the italian futurist book http://colophon.com/gallery/futurism/index.html
­Arengario online exhibition of futurist publications is available at http://www.arengario.it/futurismo/futuris01.htm
­Richard Minsky’s web essay on the Russian futurist book http://colophon.com/gallery/minsky/futurist.htm


For an introductory survey of the sorts of typographical solutions characteristic of the Futurist books, see the Reed College Special Collections site http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/artbooks/browse_books.php; for some additional examples see http://www.flickr.com/photos/migueloks/sets/72157612498526392/. I will bring into class numerous examples of futurist magazines and books.