Fall 2009 Harvard Futurisms seminar

2009-09-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

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/.

4 – sept. 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/

http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/~mdenner/Demo/poetpage/mayakovsky.html

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.

Website on Futurism and Fashion

2006-05-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

I just ran across a website that has some interesting materials on Futurism and fashion that might be worth a look. Click here and you will be taken to it.

Course readings for May Day

2006-04-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'd suggest the following (from Marinetti, Selected Poems and Prose): Zang Toomb Toomb and Futurist Words in Freedom. This amounts to pp. 55-123. I will send around some additional readings in PDFs later today: a section from Soffici's BIF&ZF+18.

Marinetti LIBRONI

2006-04-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

A fully searchable website containing Marinetti's press scrapbooks is available through Yale Beineicke Library. These represent an excellent source for doing research on Marinetti's polemics and speaking tours, particularly during the 1930s.

Additional URLs for texts in Italian

2006-04-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some websites that have collections of Futurist materials in the original:

www.homolaicus.com
toasa project
artemotore

A reliable source for information about the movement in all eras of its unfolding is

L'Arengario - Studio Bibliografico

It's a bit quirky in its organization, but it includes a very wide array of rare sources with cover images and graphics.

Sound resources

2006-04-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend having a look at UBU WEB (http://www.ubu.com) for a wide range of materials having to do with experimental art and poetry. In particular you might want to check out the sound archive located at http://www.ubu.com/sound/, which includes a section of historical recordings related to Marinetti. Very rich documentation also of Dada and Fluxus.

Seminar blog opened!

2006-04-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings all: I have created a blog that we can use for posting thoughts, comments, readings, and links during the quarter. Feel free to use it as a course bulletin board. J

PLEASE NOTE CLASSROOM CHANGE TO 260-007.

Futurisms Seminar 2009