Futurism is a modernist avant-garde movement in literature and part of the Futurism art movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It made its official literature debut with the publication of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism (1909). Futurist poetry is characterised by unexpected combinations of images and by its hyper-concision (in both economy of speech and actual length). Futurist theatre also played an important role within the movement and is distinguished by scenes that are only a few sentences long, an emphasis on nonsensical humour, and attempts to examine and subvert traditions of theatre via parody and other techniques. Longer forms of literature, such as the novel, have no place in the Futurist aesthetic of speed and compression. Futurist literature primarily focuses on seven aspects: intuition, analogy, irony, abolition of syntax, metrical reform, onomatopoeia, and essential/synthetic lyricism.
391 Futurist manifesto, published in 1915, titled ‘The Futurist Synthetic Theatre’.
Paul Jackson Excellent university lecture on the Futurism movement in the theatre, outlining its main practitioners and conventions.
Slideshare Futurist theatre slideshow, good for a quick overview of the movement.
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Featured image credit – By M.T. Abraham Center [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
