Founded by F.T. Marinetti in 1909 Italian Futurism was the first major avantgarde movement of the twentieth century. It was also one of the longestlasting havin... » 

Founded by F.T. Marinetti in 1909 Italian Futurism was the first major avantgarde movement of the twentieth century. It was also one of the longestlasting having continued as long as Marinetti and his colleagues remainedactive ? until 1944. Despite the provocative manifestos and outrageous publicperformances that earned its members international fame their remarkablepoetic achievements have received little postwar scholarly attention. Thisanthology by the widely recognized Italian Futurist scholar Willard Bohnseeks to correct this oversight.It is commonly believed that Futurist poetryrarely strayed from three main subjects modern machinery warfare and theFascist dream. Bohn demonstrates that in reality it was much more diverse.Although military mechanical and patriotic themes occur in a number of poemsincluding some in this volume the Futurist repertoire was actually muchlarger. Ranging from Symbolist exercises to radical experiments worthy of Dadaor Surrealism it was also surprisingly creative.Italian Futurist Poetrycontains more than 100 poems both Italian and English versions by sixtyonepoets from across Italy. Arranged in roughly chronological order the anthologyreflects numerous aesthetic historical and cultural developments. It is amajor contribution to the understanding of modern Italian culture and indeedof twentiethcentury avantgarde literature in general. «