ELIT 48C Class #3• Spelling Error #2: Don’t Misspell “bated

breath.” – If you write baited breath, everyone will suspect

fishing is your favorite hobby. The word should be spelled bated, which comes from abated, meaning held.

AGENDA

• Modern Manifestos– Marinetti– Loy– Pound– Cather– Williams– Hughes

• Author Introduction:– Susan Glaspell

Modernist Manifestos: In your groups, discuss the various manifestos you read for class. Endeavor to find defining, exemplary

text to share.

What is a Modernist Manifesto?

“The modernist manifesto is a public declaration of artistic convictions, relatively brief, often highly stylized or epigrammatic in the mode of other forms of modernist writing, and almost always an aggressively self- conscious declaration of artistic independence” (NAAL 335).

Modernist Manifestos

F. T. Marinetti Marinetti was a relatively obscure Italian poet before publishing “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,” which “attracted an international circle of artists and writers into Marinetti’s orbit, including painters, architects, poets, sculptors, playwrights, and film directors. Across all the arts, futurism scorned traditional standards of artistic beauty, celebrated modern technologies of speed, and aimed to shock audiences” (NAAL 336).

8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries! . . . Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.

—from Manifesto of Futurism

F. T. Marinetti

While many modernist writers depicted the modern world as an experience of loss, Marinetti wholeheartedly embraced the idea that modern technology has ushered in a secular millennium.

In this and other sections of his manifesto, does Marinetti seem to be uncritically embracing the advances of modern technology?

9. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.

10. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.

—from Manifesto of Futurism

These two points from the Manifesto of Futurism represent potentially troubling aspects of Marinetti’s worldview: his celebration of war and his denigration of women (he glorifies “scorn for woman” and promises to “destroy . . .feminism”).

How does this prowar, antiwoman stance relate to Marinetti’s futurist philosophy? Does it seem to be an afterthought? Or are the glorification of war and the denigration of women integral to Marinetti’s thinking?

Mina Loy Mina Loy was a self-described feminist poet and writer, and, oddly enough, the sexual partner of the apparently antifeminist F. T. Marinetti. She wrote (but did not publish) her “Feminist Manifesto” during her association with Marinetti.

Does Loy’s manifesto read as a response to Marinetti’s? As a criticism of it? Are the two manifestos written in a similar form, or are there formal differences as well as differences in content?

Women . . . you are on the eve of a devastating psychological upheaval—all your pet illusions must be unmasked—the lies of centuries have got to go—are you prepared for the Wrench—? There is no half-measure—NO scratching on the surface of the rubbish heap of tradition, will bring about Reform, the only method is Absolute Demolition.

—from Feminist Manifesto

One of most immediately noticeable features of Loy’s manifesto is its typography: She increases the font size at strategic moments, underlines text, puts letters in boldface, and employs irregular capitalization. What is the effect of this?Does Loy’s message of “Absolute Demolition” (rather than mere “Reform”) require that she radically alter the appearance of her text? That is, does the message of her text determine the form that it takes?

Loy’s militaristic language of demolition and destruction recall Marinetti’s glorification of war, but her profeminist message runs entirely counter to Marinetti’s. How might we account for this conflict?

Ezra PoundPound was an American expatriate living in Europe. He was hugely influential in the circle of other expatriate writers and artists not only for his own work as a poet but also for the advice that he offered to other writers. “A Retrospect” is Pound’s manifesto on Imagism, a school of poetry that argued for the central—if not defining—place of the image in modern poetry.

• An “Image” is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.

• It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works.

• Use no superfluous word, no adjective which does not reveal something.

—from “A Retrospect”

Is Ezra Pound offering a radical new vision of poetry, or are his comments simply good advice for writers of any kind?

What do you find radical in Pound’s approach as laid out in “A Retrospect”?

In a Station of the MetroThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

One of Pound’s most famous Imagist poems is “In a Station of the Metro.” Does he practice what he preaches in “A Retrospect” in this poem?

After reading this poem, are you inclined to think differently about the advice Pound offers in “A Retrospect”?

After reading an Imagist poem, do you think that “A Retrospect” is offering something more than just general advice for writers?

Willa Cather Willa Cather was born in the Midwest but spent most of her career as a novelist in cosmopolitan cities such as London and New York. In “The Novel Démeublé,” Cather implicitly asks what nineteenth-century novelists can teach twentieth-century writers. In so doing, she rejects realist novels as mere “amusement” and looks to “American romances” such as Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter for inspiration.

There are hopeful signs that some of the younger writers are trying to break away from mere verisimilitude, and, following the development of modern painting, to interpret imaginatively the material and social investiture of their characters; to present their scene by suggestion rather than by enumeration.

—from “The Novel Démeublé”

The realist literature of an earlier tradition was committed to the “verisimilitude” that Cather here rejects. What is Cather offering in the place of verisimilitude?

What does it mean “to interpret imaginatively” and “to present . . . by suggestion rather than by enumeration”?

William Carlos WilliamsSo far, all of the manifestos that we have read are serious invectives. Yet, here we encounter the playfulness in Williams’s Spring and All. Given the playful, ironic, and humorous tone of Williams’s manifesto, it may be difficult to tell how deadly serious he is about his vision for modern poetry.

It is spring! but miracle of miracles a miraculous miracle has gradually taken place during these seemingly wasted eons. Through the orderly sequences of unmentionable time EVOLUTION HAS REPEATED ITSELF FROM THE BEGINNING.

—from Spring and All

The language from Spring and All invokes both the creation story in the book of Genesis and the theory of evolution.

Why does Williams do this?

And how does he make both religion and science serve “the meaning of ‘art’”?

Langston HughesMany modernist writers supported the idea that artists and writers should be fiercely committed to their personal vision regardless of what the market, critics, or other writers said. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes argues that an artist’s racial identity complicates this commitment to personal vision in ways that white writers had not fully appreciated.

I am ashamed for the black poet who says, “I want to be a poet, not a Negro poet,” as though his own racial world were not as interesting as any other world . . . An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.

—from “The Negro Artist and

the Racial Mountain”

There’s a tension in the statement between individual choice (“An artist must be free to choose what he does”) and a manifesto-like prescription of what African-American poets must do (“I am ashamed for the black poet who says . . .”).

How does Hughes encourage black writers to embrace their heritage without telling the that they must write in a certain way to be considered successful writers?

In what way is this essay not about art at all, but about racism and the self-hatred that it breeds in an oppressed population?

Author: Susan GlaspellOn July 1, 1882, Susan Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa. She excelled in academics as a student, studying Latin and journalism. After graduation from high school, she worked as a newspaper reporter for the Davenport Morning Republican, then as the society editor for the Weekly Outlook. From 1897-1899 she attended Drake University and received a Ph.D. in Philosophy.

At the time of her death in 1948, she had written fifty short stories, nine novels, and fourteen plays; most of these works feature strong female protagonists and stories that focus on the experiences of women. Perhaps not surprisingly, her work faded from public interest during the conservative1950s, and practically disappeared from bookshelves and the stages of amateur theatres. Yet in the past few decades, her work is being reexamined and celebrated by a new group of critics and audiences.

HomeworkRead Trifles (1916) pp. 252-262

Post # 3 In literature, a symbol is something that represents something else, and is often used to communicate deeper levels of meaning. What is one important symbol in Trifles? How does Glaspell use it to propel the plot and convey deeper levels of meaning about her characters or themes??Or QHQ Trifles