‘Barbari civilizzatissimi’: Marinetti and the futurist myth of barbarism

Abstract

In light of the specific cultural history of Italy and of Marinetti's African provenance, the persistent self-proclaimed primitivism and barbarism of the Italian futurists is discussed in contrast to other versions of modernist and avant-garde primitivism. Postcolonial critics have highlighted the complicity and affinity between primitivist avant-gardes and European imperialism in Africa. Yet Italian futurism cannot be simply assimilated to the imperialist European incorporation of the African ‘other’. Italy (especially southern Italy) was traditionally perceived and represented by northern Europeans as an inferior, barbaric ‘primitive’ other akin to Africa, in opposition and contrast to ‘civilized’ Europe. The Italian futurists ironically reclaimed, embraced and valorized both Italy's southern-ness and its African-ness. At the same time, the futurists exposed barbarism and civilization in technology-driven modernity as two faces of the same coin.