Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Artist and His Politics

by Ernest Ialongo

Overview

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Artist and His Politics explores the politics of the leader of the Futurist art movement. Emerging in Italy in 1909, Futurism sought to propel Italy into the modern world, and is famously known for outlandish claims to want to destroy museums and libraries in order to speed this transition. Futurism, however, also had a much darker political side. It glorified war as the solution to many of Italy’s ills, and was closely tied to the Fascist Regime. In this book, Ialongo focuses on Marinetti as the chief determinant of Futurist politics and explores how a seemingly revolutionary art movement, at one point having some support among revolutionary left-wing movements in Italy, could eventually become so intimately tied to the repressive Fascist regime. Ialongo traces Marinetti’s politics from before the foundation of Futurism, through the Great War, and then throughout the twenty-year Fascist dictatorship, using a wide range of published and unpublished sources. Futurist politics are presented within the wider context of developments in Italy and Europe, and Ialongo further highlights how Marinetti’s political choices influenced the art of his movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611477566
Publisher:	University Press Copublishing Division
Publication date:	03/06/2015
Series:	The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ernest Ialongo is associate professor of history at Hostos Community College, CUNY.

Table of Contents

Introduction
-Historiography of Political Futurism
-Roots of Marinetti’s Politics
-An Overview of the Book

Chapter 1: From the Foundation to the Crisis of Caporetto, 1909–1918
-The Foundation and Early Politics
- The Libyan War and the Nationalization of Marinetti’s Politics
- Interventionism and War: Nationalist Apotheosis and the Re-emergence of Radicalism in Marinetti’s Politics
- The Manifesto of the Futurist Political Party

Chapter 2: Futurist Politics in Action, Summer 1918–May 1920
-Political Futurism Formalized
-Fascism, Disillusionment, and the D’Annunzian Alternative
-The Fall Political Campaign and the Abandonment of Fascism

Chapter 3: The Return to Fascism, 1920–1925
-Marinetti: Isolated
-Marinetti: Dicianovista

Chapter 4: Building the Dictatorship, 1925–1929
-Marinetti and the Dictatorship
-Battling Right-Wing Fascism
-Marinetti Accademico: The Loyal Radical

Chapter 5: Working Towards the Duce, 1929–1937
-Working Towards the Duce: Futurist Initiatives in the Thirties
-The Ethiopian War

Chapter 6: Isolation and Impotence, 1930–1939
-The Perils of Being “Too Fascist”
-The Consequences of “Not Being Fascist Enough”

Chapter 7: Living and Dying with the Regime: Marinetti in World War Two, 1939–1944
-Marinetti in War
-Marinetti at the End: Salò

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Scholars of cultural studies, Italian studies, Futurism, and political theory will find this book and Ialongo’s methodology both illuminating and refreshing. The strength of this study is in its careful detailing of Marinetti’s role in the political realm.... Through his discussions of Marinetti’s writings, propagandist speeches, wartime efforts, and international travels, Ialongo offers a new perspective on how Marinetti continued to support the Future of Italy above all else.

Forum Italicum

Scholars of Futurism, Fascism, twentieth-century Italian history and culture, and political theory will find this book interesting and thought-provoking. Drawing from a number of published and unpublished sources, Ialongo manages to give a limpid and unapologetic analysis of Marinetti’s political activity and of his links to Fascism, at times also exploring its darker and less comfortable sides. The constant dialogue between radicalism and nationalism is not just the underlying concept of the book, but the key that allows the author to shed light on Marinetti’s political experience from a new perspective.

The European Legacy – Toward New Paradigms

Ernest Ialongo’s monograph on F.T. Marinetti addresses a fundamental question: how did the creator of a transformative art movement in the early twentieth-century become a leading figure in the Italian Fascist Regime, whose commitment was such that he remained loyal to the fascist cause until his death? In a carefully orchestrated argument, Ialongo masterfully addresses this question by considering the full complexity of Marinetti’s ideological formation.

Mark Antliff

Ernest Ialongo gives us, for the first time, a comprehensive and unapologetic analysis of F. T. Marinetti’s politics. Challenging the tendency to unnaturally separate art and politics, Ialongo deftly and with great complexity presents Marinetti’s and the Futurist movement he led's thirty-five-year struggle to combine radicalism, bellicose and elitist nationalism, and defense of individual liberties. At a time when the art of Futurism finds a great following, Ialongo provides an essential service in reminding us of the movement's deep commitment to radical, but anti-democratic, nationalist, and Fascist politics.

Marla Stone

Scholars of Futurism, Fascism, twentieth-century Italian history and culture, and political theory will find this book interesting and thought-provoking. Drawing from a number of published and unpublished sources, Ialongo manages to give a limpid and unapologetic analysis of Marinetti’s political activity and of his links to Fascism, at times also exploring its darker and less comfortable sides. The constant dialogue between radicalism and nationalism is not just the underlying concept of the book, but the key that allows the author to shed light on Marinetti’s political experience from a new perspective.

The European Legacy – Toward New Paradigms

Scholars of Futurism, Fascism, twentieth-century Italian history and culture, and political theory will find this book interesting and thought-provoking. Drawing from a number of published and unpublished sources, Ialongo manages to give a limpid and unapologetic analysis of Marinetti’s political activity and of his links to Fascism, at times also exploring its darker and less comfortable sides. The constant dialogue between radicalism and nationalism is not just the underlying concept of the book, but the key that allows the author to shed light on Marinetti’s political experience from a new perspective.

The European Legacy - Toward New Paradigms