Between Word and Image: Women Futurists and Parole in Liberta' 1914-1924

After F.T. Marinetti, the leader of futurism, theorized parole in libertà (or <“>words<–>in<–>freedom<”>) in his manifestoes, numerous futurists participated in this verbo<–>visual practice. Although paroliberismo was a characteristic form of expression that dominated futurist poetics preceding, during, and after World War I, little scholarly work has been done on the <“>words<–>in<–>freedom<”> authored by women and how they might differ from those created by their male counterparts. Women, outcast as they were by futurism both in theory and often in practice, participated nevertheless in the avant<–>garde movement known for announcing its <“>disdain for women<”> in its <“>Founding Manifesto<”> of 1909. This dissertation takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing the position of the female futurist and her mixed-media contributions during the years in which paroliberismo was carried out in futurist circles. I examine rare and under<–>studied verbo<–>visual works done by women between 1914 and 1924. My readings seek to understand the in<–>between position of women futurists, which, I argue, stems from the word<–>image duality they employ and goes on to include other intermediary positions such as intertextuality, intermittent autobiography, and concomitant futurist and non-futurist allegiances. In chapter one, I analyze the two<–>volume narrative entitled Diario d'una giovane donna futurista, penned by a certain Flora Bonheur, believed by many to be a pseudonym. I argue that the first volume is a parody of futurism, whereas the second volume is a parody of passatismo. Diario is therefore structured around a chiasmus and contributes to both futurism and <“>passatism.<”> Chapter two analyzes the parole in libertà and the illustrations that accompany Diario. Both the <&ldquo>words<–>in<–>freedom<”> and the illustrations function in a similar way and stray from standard futurist practices. Furthermore, the illustrations of Diario, executed by Luigi Bignami, are all in dialogue with the iconography of the popular erotic postcard and are often in conflict with Bonheur's text. In chapter three I look at two examples of women's handwritten parole in libertà--Benedetta's <“>Spicologia di 1 uomo<”> (1919) and Rosa Rosà's <“>Ricevimento<—>thè<—>signore<—>nessun uomo<”> (1917). I contend that some women futurists employed handwriting instead of creative typography to execute their <“>free<–>word<”> works in order to reinsert a tie to the literary <“>I<”> that Marinetti had banned from futurism. In chapter four, I look at Benedetta's illustrated novel, Le forze umane (1924), and situate it intertextually with Piet Mondrian's writings on neoplasticism. I claim that Benedetta appropriates Mondrian's art theory both thematically and structurally in her first novel in attempts to alter futurism. The dissertation uncovers the word<–>image strategies women futurists employ in order to find subject positions for themselves in a misogynistic and anti-feminist avant<–>garde movement. In so doing, the contributions of women futurists are finally, after years of being anthologized, examined on their own terms and shed light on the <“>paradoxical<”> position of the woman futurist.

Advisor: Spackman, Barbara