Futurist Women

Florence, Feminism and the New Sciences

Paola Sica

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781137508034
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137508041
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Social Sciences

Futurist Women broadens current debates on Futurism and literary studies by demonstrating the expanding global impact of women Futurist artists and writers in the period succeeding the First World War. This study initially focuses on the local: the making of the self in the work by the women who were affiliated with the journal L'Italia futurista during World War I in Florence. But then it broadens its field of inquiry to the global. It compares the achievements of these women with those of key precursors and followers. It also conceives these women's work as an ongoing dialogue with contemporary political and scientific trends in Europe and North America, especially first wave feminism, eugenics, naturism and esotericism. Finally, it examines the vital importance and repercussions of these women's ideas in current debates on gender and the posthuman condition. This ground-breaking study will prove invaluable for all scholars and upper-level students of modern European literature, Futurism, and gender studies.

1

Futurist Women in Florence, 1916–18

1.1Profiles

Futurism began in 1909 with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s manifesto published in Le Figaro, and ended with Marinetti’s death in 1944. In the interim, significant numbers of women joined the movement in different locations, including Italy, France, the United States and Russia. These women were important interlocutors for their male peers — because of their diverse cultural backgrounds, because of their vision of new female models, because of their political stance in a historical period spanning two world wars, and because of their creative experimentation in a variety of fields, including literature, visual art, theater, fashion and gastronomy.

Despite their contributions, these avant-garde women have drawn significant critical attention only in recent decades, and especially since 2009, the centenary of the movement. Some of these later studies analyze the contributions of such notable figures as Valentine de Saint-Point, Enif Robert, Barbara and Benedetta. Others focus on the work of specific groups of women, often along a chronological trajectory. Many critics agree that Futurist women had taken on a difficult task. They sought to mediate aggressive nationalism and virile action extolled by most of their male peers with the political and social reforms endorsed by key figures of first-wave feminism.

One group worthy of particular notice is L’Italia futurista, comprising women who were active in Florence from June 1916 to February 1918: Maria Ginanni, Irma Valeria, Fulvia Giuliani, Enif Robert, Fanny Dini, Mina Della Pergola, Emma Marpillero, Enrica Piubellini, Marj Carbonaro, Shara Marini, Rosa Rosà and Magamal. They constituted the first and most conspicuous group of female writers, artists and performers to elaborate Futurist ideals. These women accepted, but revised, the ideas introduced by Marinetti in his founding manifesto of 1909. They generally embraced Marinetti’s credo for modernization, provocative action and energetic virility. However, they did not stress as vehemently or as frequently as Marinetti did, the deification of machines. Their interest, like that of their male peers of L’Italia futurista, shifted mainly toward occultism and spirituality.¹ On account of their frequent recourse to psychic automatist practices involving a dreamlike and subconscious approach, some scholars argue that members of this group, male and female alike, may be considered precursors of Surrealism.²

Particularly relevant was the way in which these women tackled ideas of identity in an attempt to imagine new models of womanhood and humanity. Also relevant was how, in presenting these ideas through their verbal and visual work, they responded to widespread European and North American cultural trends which were popular in their Florentine milieu during World War I. These trends did not exclusively include esotericism and other doctrines stressing the irrational, the dreamlike and the spiritual in humans, but also eugenics, naturism and first-wave feminism. For the women Futurists of Florence, as for the supporters of these different cultural trends, it was important to find a way to activate the latent powers of the mind, for strengthening the body, and for improving social conditions for women. Reality was changing. There was a common conviction that multiple layers of it were not visible in ordinary circumstances. However, they could be brought to light and raise awareness of the existence of a more perfect world that, if inhabited, could ameliorate people’s lives.

In this study, attention to different facets of identity politics related to aesthetics in this local female contingent and in connection with global influences has various purposes. It helps to highlight the uniqueness and exchanges of this theoretical and aesthetic Futurist formation. It offers the opportunity to speculate about certain distinctive aspects that were later elaborated, from different political perspectives, in debates on Posthumanism and cybernetic feminism. In the context of previous scholarship on the topic, this focus enables us to venture beyond dominant critical interpretations homogenizing Futurist women’s history; to revise recurrent assertions that Futurist female models of identity are chiefly characterized by enhanced virility and are the product of a misogynous movement; finally, to counter those scholarly works that do not sufficiently stress the relation between the women’s status in cultural geography and history, their political stance and their creative endeavors.

The goal is to highlight the dynamics of locational gendered Futurism as it pertains to this case. By “locational Futurism” one can mean a type of Futurism that becomes visible if one rejects uniforming definitions of the movement, and acknowledges instead its diverse configurations stemming from ideas that were initially transplanted and then revised in various spatial and temporal contexts. By “gendered Futurism” one can refer to the representations of gender and the sexual politics of those who formed the movement. The focus, in sum, is on the circulation of diverse cultural ideas. The assumption is that encounters among cultures have the potential of modifying imagination and social reality — of transforming notions of identity and aesthetic traditions, of presenting the prospect of alternative worlds, and, in certain cases, of prompting changes in social systems.

The expression “locational gendered Futurism” is inspired by the work of such feminist theoreticians as Linda McDowell, Marianne DeKoven, Susan Stanford Friedman and Griselda Pollock, who stress the relation between gender, identity and place, and assert that these categories are socially constructed. According to these theoreticians, such categories as identity, and gender as related to space, are subject to change. These categories are affected by the standpoint from which one observes them, and by the spatial and temporal coordinates in which they originate.³ In relating these sociological categories to the avant-garde aesthetic sphere, one can posit that literary and artistic signs are the reflections of cultural systems and personal elaborations at a particular time and in a particular space. Thus, identity — like other social categories, such as gender, ethnicity, class and race — can be imaginatively constructed in creative texts, either to accept, avoid or resist mainstream norms.

The methodology of this work is inspired by the metaphor of radiation. A pebble thrown into the water generates a series of concentric circles. These circles can also be imagined in their reverse movement. Similarly, the activities of the Italia futurista group had a “forward” and “backward” ripple effect that involved a reciprocal influence with other currents of thought in the arts, the humanities, the social sciences and the sciences. This study traces the waves of that ripple effect through the interconnection of biography, cultural history, literary (and art) criticism and gender studies. It begins with an account of these women’s lives; then it records these women’s reactions to the cultural-geographical contexts in which they flourished. Finally, it examines the application of their various ideas on identity, gender and humanity to their creative work through a close reading of key texts.

* * *

Personal histories and personal visions have an impact on the way one interprets facts and reacts to them. The biographical overview of the Italia futurista female group illustrates the diverse vantage point of these women when they joined the avant-garde in Florence during the war. Some of them were born in Italy, and others hailed from other countries. Some of them belonged to aristocratic and wealthy families, and others did not. Moreover, some of them specialized in languages and literature, and others studied mathematics, theater and the visual arts. This is apparent in their correspondence and in a variety of bibliographical works.⁴ These sources attest that those who have left more than mere traces of their personal histories are Maria Ginanni, Rosa Rosà, Enif Robert, Irma Valeria, Fulvia Giuliani, Mina Della Pergola and Magamal. Little information is provided about Fanny Dini, Emma Marpillero, Enrica Piubellini; and even less is said about Marj Carbonaro and Shara Marini. Carbonaro wrote “Luci nel buio” (L’Italia futurista. January 27, 1918) and Shara Marini “Rivendicazione,” a letter addressed to Futurist Corrado Morosello, reminding him of the supportive role of Italian women in their companions’ lives (L’Italia futurista. July 1, 1917).

Emma Marpillero (1896–1985), who published the free-word table “Silenzio-Alba” in L’Italia futurista in 1916, specialized in studio art. She studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence with Galileo Chini, Augusto Bastianini and Emilio Andrè for several years. In that period, she was introduced to the Futurists Emilio Settimelli and Bruno Corra, who invited her to collaborate on the Florentine journal, and to F.T. Marinetti, with whom she corresponded until 1921. Enrica Piubellini (1895–1980), another author of free-word tables for L’Italia futurista, studied Foreign Languages. She moved to Florence from Northern Italy in the mid-1910s, where she attended the Università per Stranieri. Once in Florence, she, like Marpillero, became part of the Futurist circle. She published “Paesaggio + Forte Austriaco, parole in libertà” in 1916 (initially attributed to Enrico Piubellini instead of Enrica, because of a typo) and “Campo di Marte” the following year.⁵

Other women of L’Italia futurista are recalled by Primo Conti in an interview published in La gola del merlo. His descriptions of Rosa Rosà, Enif Robert, Fanny Dini, Maria Ginanni and Fulvia Giuliani are particularly vivid. He declares that these women of the “pattuglia azzurra” (“blue patrol”),⁶ together with their male peers, constituted a distinct avant-garde group because of their strong interest in paranormal phenomena. In his words, they formed

un gruppo arioso, con un giornale dove le più sofferte esperienze apparivano come facili improvvisazioni, e dove il contatto con gli uomini, e l’impatto con la vita di ogni giorno, si traduceva e si risolveva in una visione magica e fantomatica anticipatrice, in un certo senso, del Surrealismo.

(an airy group, with a journal in which the most painful experiences appeared similar to easy improvisations. [In the journal], the contact with people, and the impact of every day life, was translated and resolved into a magical and ghostly vision, which, in a sense, fore-shadowed Surrealism.) (157)

When Conti refers to the question of women, one among the major topics addressed in the pages of L’Italia futurista, he asserts that women were vocal, and their opinions were different from those of Futurist men, especially those who belonged to other contingents — for example, Ardengo Soffici and Giovanni Papini of Lacerba. According to Conti, Enif Robert and Rosa Rosà drew public attention with their hostile reaction to Marinetti’s provocative handbook on the new male lover, Come si seducono le donne. In this book, Marinetti celebrated the irresistible charm of the true Italian male Futurist. But Robert and Rosà took strong exception. They asserted that women had their own role in the art of seduction; thus Marinetti’s use of the verb sedurre (“to seduce”) was inappropriate. It seemed to suggest that women were creatures devoid of will power. To Robert and Rosà, Marinetti’s point was in conflict with the ideals of Futurism. Rosà urged women to react, to be more individualistic, because, according to her, this was the only effective strategy to counter male bias (Conti, La gola del merlo, 155).

Conti also evaluates Rosà as a painter and an illustrator. He was not impressed by her drawings because they were too sketch-like and resembled those found in fashion magazines (La gola del merlo, 156). In spite of Conti’s negative comments, however, Rosà’s success as an artist is apparent. Her work was displayed at numerous well-known galleries and exhibitions, both in Italy and Germany.⁷ Moreover, she made a series of drawings for various Futurist books, including Bruno Corra’s Sam Dunn è morto of 1917 and Mario Carli’s Notti filtrate of 1918. There is little evidence of her painting during her Futurist phase. Claudia Salaris reports only a single painting by Rosà, Bandiere, proof of which is supported by a photograph taken in 1919.⁸

Rosa Rosà was the pen name for Edith von Haynau (1884).⁹ She was born into a Viennese aristocratic family when Vienna was still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In her early years she was tutored at home, especially in music and art. She went on to pursue formal education at the Wiener Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen. In 1907 she married the Italian journalist Ulrico Arnaldi and moved to Italy. During World War I, while her husband was fighting for the Italian cause against Austria and Germany, she became a member of L’Italia futurista. In addition to devoting herself to art, she created free-word tables (for example, “Ricevimento – thè – signore – nessun uomo,” 1917 [sic]), and also wrote short stories, novels and essays in literary criticism (for example, “Le poetesse italiane e l’ultimo libro di Settimelli,” 1917).

Figure 1.1 Enif Robert, young actress © Ufficio Beni Culturali della Diocesi di Prato

Some of Rosà’s Futurist short stories portray exceptional types: either muscular heroes or individuals endowed with mediumistic powers. In addition, whereas one of her novels written in her Florentine Futurist phase but published shortly afterward — Non c’è che...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Futurist Women in Florence, 1916–18
• 2 Evolving Concepts of Womanhood
• 3 Powerful Bodies and Powerful Nations
• 4 Regeneration through Occultism
• 5 The Epitome and Repercussions of the New Woman
• Notes and References
• Bibliography
• Index