Symposium at Yale Celebrates Italian Futurism

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of F.T. Marinetti’s founding manifesto of Italian Futurism, Yale University will hold an international scholarly symposium November 13-14 in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of F.T. Marinetti’s founding manifesto of Italian Futurism, Yale University will hold an international scholarly symposium November 13-14 in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St.

The event is free and open to the public, with advance registration.

Titled “Futurismo/Futurizm: The Futurist Avant Garde in Italy and Russia,” the conference will consider the movement’s manifestations across national lines.

Marjorie Perloff of Stanford University will deliver the keynote address, “The Audacity of Hope: Futurist Aura and National Difference in the Early Manifestos,” at 5 p.m. on November 13. That evening at 7:30 p.m., the 1921 silent film “L’uomo meccanico” (“The Mechanical Man” 1921) directed by André Deed, will be screened in the Whitney Humanities Center auditorium, 53 Wall St.

A series of panels will run throughout the day on November 14, beginning at 9 a.m. Topics include “The Manifesto,” “Literature,” “Cultural Politics and the Visual Arts” and “Performance.” Yale participants include Millicent Marcus, professor of Italian language and literature; John MacKay, professor of Slavic languages and literatures and chair of the Film Studies Program; and Sebastian Zeidler, assistant professor of the history of art, who will moderate Saturday panels. Speakers include scholars from the University of Rome, the University of Bristol, Stanford, UCLA, UC-Berkeley and Columbia.

Marinetti’s 1909 manifesto sparked intense interest across Europe and Eurasia, and is widely considered the inaugural text of the 20th-century literary avant garde. His subsequent visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1914 allowed the Russian avant garde to differentiate itself from rival European currents. This conference will provide a comparative and transnational perspective to the many celebrations of Futurism’s 100th anniversary currently being held in the United States and abroad.

This conference is sponsored by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the departments of Italian and Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Film Studies Program, European Studies Council and Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund.

An exhibit of Futurist paintings, sketches and prints from Yale’s collections will be on view in the Beinecke through December 19.

For more information, call 203-432-0595.

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Media Contact

Gila Reinstein: gila.reinstein@yale.edu, 203-432-1325