UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Fillia's Futurism Writing, Politics, Gender and Art after the First World War Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2r47405v Author Baranello, Adriana Marie Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Fillia’s Futurism Writing, Politics, Gender and Art after the First World War A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Italian By Adriana Marie Baranello 2014 © Copyright by Adriana Marie Baranello 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Fillia’s Futurism Writing, Politics, Gender and Art after the First World War By Adriana Marie Baranello Doctor of Philosophy in Italian University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Lucia Re, Co-Chair Professor Claudio Fogu, Co-Chair Fillia (Luigi Colombo, 1904-1936) is one of the most significant and intriguing protagonists of the Italian futurist avant-garde in the period between the two World Wars, though his body of work has yet to be considered in any depth. My dissertation uses a variety of critical methods (socio-political, historical, philological, narratological and feminist), along with the stylistic analysis and close reading of individual works, to study and assess the importance of Fillia’s literature, theater, art, political activism, and beyond. Far from being derivative and reactionary in form and content, as interwar futurism has often been characterized, Fillia’s works deploy subtler, but no less innovative forms of experimentation. For most of his brief but highly productive life, Fillia lived and worked in Turin, where in the early 1920s he came into contact with Antonio Gramsci and his factory councils. This led to a period of extreme left-wing communist-futurism. In the mid-1920s, following Marinetti’s lead, Fillia moved toward accommodation with the fascist regime. This shift to the right eventually even led to a phase ii dominated by Catholic mysticism, from which emerged his idiosyncratic and highly original futurist sacred art. The purposes of my study are the following: to analyze and contextualize Fillia’s oeuvre; to highlight his importance for a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the futurist movement and the European avant-garde; to demonstrate his crucial aesthetic contributions to late futurism; and to bring critical attention to his radical political ideology. I also draw out the influence that his early communist activities continued to have even in his later fascist years, as well as his unprecedented interest in questions of gender and feminism. Based on the evidence that emerges from my reading of Fillia’s oeuvre, in my conclusions I show how my work contributes to a more thorough and nuanced understanding of futurism’s complexity, and I discuss Fillia’s importance to Italian intellectual life immediately before and under the fascist regime. Studying Fillia’s ideological swing from left-wing radical to right-leaning conservative provides crucial clues about the intellectual and cultural climate in interwar Italy, and forwards scholarly understanding of the pressures and constraints that led so many Italian intellectuals to active participation in Mussolini’s regime. Finally, using the evidence presented in the dissertation, I suggest some possible new perspectives for the comparative study of modernism and the avant-garde in Europe. iii The dissertation of Adriana Marie Baranello is approved. Massimo Ciavolella Thomas Harrison Claudio Fogu, Co-Chair Lucia Re, Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii VITA ix INTRODUCTION 0. Scope, Methodology, and Organizational Logic 1 1. Who was Fillia? 3 2. General Characteristics of Fillia and His Works 6 3. Forming a Futurist Identity: Literary Basis 13 4. Forming a Futurist Identity: Pictorial Basis 21 5. Chapter Breakdown 27 6. Images 31 CHAPTER 1: Proletarian Dynamite: Politics, Poetry and Theater in Fillia’s Early Works 0. Introduction 34 1. Setting the Scene 36 2. Fillia’s Earliest Works: Communism, Futurism and the Poems of 46 1+1+1=1 – Dinamite – Poesie Proletarie – Rosso + Nero 3. Sensualità—Teatro d’eccezione 58 4. Related Projects: The Teatro Novatore, 92 Early Paintings and Journalism 5. Images 100 CHAPTER 2: New Lyric and New Lust Under a New Regime: I nuovi poeti futuristi and Lussuria radioelettrica—Fillia’s Poetry Projects 0. Introduction 103 1. General Characteristics of and Issues with I nuovi poeti futuristi 105 2. Fillia’s New Lyricism 116 3. Nuovo Lirismo, Nuovo Poeta: 120 Close Readings from I nuovi poeti futuristi 4. Lussuria radioelettrica: Poetry +Science 138 5. Conclusions 159 CHAPTER 3: The Experimental Novels 0. Introduction 162 1. Women in Italy 1880-1920: 165 v Feminism, Socialism, and Communism 2. Novel Summaries 168 3. Publication History, Technical Aspects of the Texts 185 and Stylistic Analysis 4. Fillia’s Novels in Context 195 5. Fillia’s “Social Darwinism” 204 6. The Futurist War on Love 216 7. Gender, Sexuality and Breaking Down Social Constructs 222 8. Spirituality and Religion 233 9. (Communist) Conclusions 238 CHAPTER 4: Fillia’s Distant, Disintegrating Bodies and the Loss of a Dream 0. Introduction 244 1. Futurism, Fascism and Aesthetics 248 2. Aeropittura, the Arte Sacra Futurista and 256 the Spiritual Currents in Futurism 3. An Art That Was “Both Traditional and Modern”: 264 The Return of Perspective and Symbolic Form 4. Fillia’s Nudes 271 5. The Holy Family and Religious Icon(ographie)s 276 6. Conclusions 287 7. Images 291 CONCLUSION 306 BIBLIOGRAPHY 310 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Fillia, Nudo meccanico, 1925. 31 Figure 2: Photo of Fillia, 1924-25 31 Figure 3: Fillia, Autoritratto parolibero, 1926 (?) 32 Figure 4: Fillia, Autoritratto, 1926 32 Figure 5: Fillia, Studio per autoritratto, 1925-6 33 Figure 6: Fillia and T. A. Bracci, 100 Tessera d'iscrizione ai Sindacati Artistici Futuristi, 1923. Figure 7: Fillia, Ballerina -- Paesaggio scenografico, 1926 101 Figure 8: Fillia, Set and Costumes for Quarta dimensione del cuore, 1926 102 Figure 9: Fillia, Notte di Estate: caffè - chantant affollatissimo 122 Figure 10: Cesare Simonetti, Treno in corsa 130 Figure 11: Fillia, Treno 132 Figure 12: Fillia, Caffè chantant (quarta dimensione di me stesso) 153 Figure 13: Fillia, Femminilità, 1928 291 Figure 14: Fillia, Valori Plastici di un nudo, 1928 292 Figure 15: Fillia, Figure nello spazio (Senza titolo), 1930 293 Figure 16: Fillia, Riposo, 1930 294 Figure 17: Fillia, Gli innamorati, 1930 295 Figure 18: Fillia, Misteri d’ambiente, 1929 296 Figure 19: Fillia, L’Eternità, 1934 297 Figure 20: Fillia, S. Antonio da Padova, Probably 1931 298 Figure 21: Fillia, La città di Dio, 1931 299 Figure 22: Fillia, Divinità della vita aerea, 1933-34 300 Figure 23: Fillia, L’Adorazione, 1931 301 Figure 24: Fillia, Natività – Morte – Eternità, 1931 302 Figure 25: Fillia, Aeropittura, 1931 303 Figure 26: Fillia, Paesaggio (Senza titolo), 1931 304 Figure 27: Fillia, Superamento terrestre, 1931 305 vii Acknowledgements: I would like to express my deepest thanks first to my advisor, Lucia Re, for the guidance, the support, the immeasurable amount of help and feedback she has given me, and her seemingly endless patience. I likewise thank Claudio Fogu for taking on the role of co-chair of my committee, for his guidance and for his insightful feedback as I wrote my dissertation. Professor Re and Professor Fogu have been endlessly generous to me of their time and energy, and for that I am very grateful. Both have helped me develop as a scholar and an educator, and I hope to show respect for them by continuing to pursue both roles, and to continue to improve, as they have pushed me to do. My thanks to Professor Thomas Harrison, and the UCLA Department of Italian for the resources, opportunities, funding, and support that made my project possible. Without the generous financial support of the department, and the foundations that awarded me grants through the graduate division, this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Professor Günter Berghaus for his generous responses to my inquiries. Professor Berghaus provided me very valuable assistance at multiple stages of my work, and with information that greatly facilitated my research. Thanks are due, of course, to my parents, James and Catherine, to Dr. Sarah Parkinson, to Kathleen O’Leary, and to the group of dear friends who have become a vital support network for me, without all of whom this process would have been a much longer and more difficult a road. Per ultimo, ai parenti italiani: questo itinerario pazzesco è stato iniziato con voi. Vi ringrazio con tutto il cuore. viii Vita: May 2004 B.A. in Italian and Art History Johns Hopkins University August 2006 M.A. in Italian Literature Middlebury College C.V. Starr Schools Abroad 2008-2014 Doctoral work in Italian Literature Department of Italian University of California, Los Angeles ix Introduction 0. Scope, Methodology, and Organizational Logic The goal of this introduction is to provide a synthetic portrait of Fillia (Luigi Colombo 1904-1936) through a brief discussion of his personal identity politics and his futurist theories of expression. This will serve as a preface to my subsequent study of his literary and visual works produced between 1922 and 1935. In section 1, I outline Fillia’s biography and his major life events to orient the reader. This task continues in section 2, in which I explore general characteristics of Fillia and his works that will form an important base for my later analyses. Sections 3 and 4 analyze Fillia’s exploration of his self-perception and his identity as a futurist, first through poetry and prose, then through painting. Finally, in section 5, I provide a brief outline of each of my chapters.