HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Russian and Slavic Studies

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Nina Rudnik, Prof. Manuela Consoni

Coordinator Email: Nina.Rudnik@mail.huji.ac.il manuela.consonni@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Prior appointment necessary

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Nina Rudnick,
Prof. Manuela Consonni

Course/Module description:
Futurism as one of the avant-garde movements of the 20th century is a universal trend that began in Italy in 1909 and spread to other countries such as Spain, France, Germany, England, Portugal, the USA, Japan and more. In Russia a similar movement began simultaneously with Italian Futurism and developed until the early 1930s. The course will present a comparative analysis of these two leading versions of European Futurism, Italian and Russian. Special attention will be given to the ideological, historical, aesthetic and literary origins of the two Futurist movements. We will also discuss their common aspects, such as the struggle against the 'old culture', technological achievements and their impact on the world and human nature, modern city life, various social issues and attitudes towards wars and revolutions. One of the prominent themes of the course is the role of the artist and the creation of the new futurist language that has the power to change the world. The course will be accompanied by rich visual material (music, plastic arts, theater and cinema).

Course/Module aims:
– to investigate comparatively the leading texts of Italian and Russian Futurism, theoretical, artistic and literary;
– to introduce students to a selection of masterpieces and artistic processes in Italian and Russian culture through various methods of analysis;
– to become familiar with key trends in the interdisciplinary research discourse in European avant-garde studies.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
• to understand the key processes in history, culture and literature in Italy and Russia that led to the emergence of the Futurist movements
• to discuss the role of European Futurism in the ideological, aesthetic and cultural field of the period
• to understand the nature of European Futurism as an interdisciplinary cultural phenomenon
• to delve into the analysis of the interrelationships between Russian culture and art and Western art in general and Italian art in particular
• to deepen analytical skills in text analysis

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Frontal lectures, discussions, presentations

Course/Module Content:
26.03, 2.04 – Manuela Consoni, Nina Rudnik. Introduction: The emergence of Italian Futurism and the beginning of the Russian avant-garde movement. The two movements and their historical, aesthetic, ideological, cultural and literary origins. The first manifestos and artistic groups.
9.04 – Nina Rudnik. The poetics of rebellion and the construction of the new world: the new poetic language in Futurist art and literature. 'Zaum' ('transrational language') and the development of linguistics. Futurism and the school of Russian formalism.
23.04, 7.05 – Manuela Consoni. Futurism, Fascism, Modernism I
14.05 – Nina Rudnik. The Futurist Chronotope. Velimir Khlebnikov – 'the King of Time' and 'the President of the Earth'.
21.05 – Manuela Consoni. Futurism, Fascism, Modernism II
28.05 – Nina Rudnik. The Futurist Chronotope (continued). 'Victory over the Sun': Russian Futurist Theater.
04.06 – Manuela Consoni. Futurism: Journals and Cinema
11.06 – Nina Rudnik. The Life and Fate of Vladimir Mayakovsky
18.06 – Manuela Consoni. The Decline and Rise of Fascism
25.06 – 02.07 – Nina Rudnik, Manuela Consoni. The Russian Futurists during World War I and the Russian Revolutions of 1917. The Soviet Era and the End of Futurist Utopia. Futurism, Fascism and Stalinism

Required Reading:
אריאל רטהאוז (עריכה ותרגום), פוטוריזם וחדשנים אחרים: 1910-1925, ירושלים: כרמל, 1991.

VITA FUTURISTA, LUTZ BECKER, 2012


Dana Arieli-Horowitz, “Art and Politics: The Case of Italian Futurism and Fascism,” Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly, 49, (Summer 1994), 86-97

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities, Italy, 1922-1945, Berkeley : University of California Press, 2001: Chapter 1: Towards a Fascist Culture; Chapter 2 : Narrating the Nation

Günter Berghaus, Futurism and politics : between anarchist rebellion and fascist reaction, 1909-1944, Providence, R.I : Berghahn Books, 1996: Introduction: Setting the Scene for the Futurist Political Engagement: Italy between Unification and Mussolini's Regime; Chapter 1: Marinetti's Ideological Development and Early Political Influences; Chapter 2: Futurist Politics in 1910–1917 and Their Influence on the Radical Left; Chapter 4: Rapprochement with the Left, 1920–1924 – Accommodation with the Fascist Regime.

Günter Berghaus, International Futurism in Arts and Literature, Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, 2012 (2000): Emilio Gentile, “Political Futurism and the Myth
of the Italian Revolution”; Shirley W. Vinall, “Marinetti, Soffici, and French Literature”; Mario Verdone and Günter Berghaus, “Vita futurista and Early Futurist Cinema”; Mirella Bentivoglio, “Innovative Artist's Books of Italian Futurism.”

Günter Berghaus, Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj , Gabriella Elina Imposti and Christina Lodder, eds., International Year Book of Futurism Studies, vol. 29, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009

Anne Bowler “Politics as Art: Italian Futurism and Fascism,” Theory and Society, 20, 6, (Dec., 1991), 763-794.

Emilio Gentile, The struggle for modernity : nationalism, futurism, and fascism
Westport, Conn: Praeger; 2003: Introduction: Italian Nationalism and Modernity; Chapter 4: The “New Man” and the “New State”: The Sacralization of Politics and Myth of National Regeneration; Chapter 6: Conflicting Modernisms: La Voce Against Futurism.

Andrew Hewitt, Fascist modernism: aesthetics, politics, and the avant-garde
Stanford, Calif : Stanford University Press, 1993.

Martin Jay, “The Aesthetic Ideology" as Ideology; Or, What Does It Mean to Aestheticize Politics?”, Cultural Critique, 21 (Spring, 1992), 41-61

Ernest Ialongo, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: The Artist and His Politics, Madison, New Jersey; Teaneck, New Jersey : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press 2015: Chapter 1: From the Foundation to the Crisis of Caporetto, 1909–1918; Chapter 3: The Return to Fascism; Chapter 4: Building the Dictatorship.

Ioffe, Dennis G. and White, Frederick H. (eds.) The Russian Avant-Garde and Radical Modernism: An Introductory Reader. Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2012.
Gurianova, N. A. The Aesthetics of Anarchy : Art and Ideology in the Early Russian Avant-Garde. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
Glisic, Iva. The Futurist Files : Avant-Garde, Politics, and Ideology in Russia, 1905-1930. DeKalb, Illinois: NIU Press, 2018.
Markov, Vladimir. Russian Futurism: a History. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1968.
Lawton, Anna and Herbert Eagle. Russian Futurism through Its Manifestoes, 1912-1928. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Shklovsky, Viktor. On Poetry and Trans-Sense Language, transl. by Gerald Janecek and Peter Mayer. October, Autumn, 1985, Vol. 34 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 3-24. https://www.jstor.org/stable/778486
Jakobson, Roman. On Language in Literature / ed. by C. Pomorska and S. Rudy. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Jakobson, Roman. The Newest Russian Poetry: V. Xlebnikov. In: Jakobson, Roman. My Futurist Years, / Compiled and edited by Bengt Jangfeldt and Stephen Rudy. Translated and with an introduction by Stephen Rudy. NY: Marsilio Publishers, 1997. P. 173–208.
Tynianov, Yuri. On Xlebnikov. Permanent Evolution : Selected Essays on Literature, Theory and Film. Translated and edited by Ainsley Morse and Philip Redko. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2019. P. 217–230.
Erlich, Victor. Russian Formalism: History – Doctrine. Fourth Edition. vol. 4. Germany: De Gruyter, 2012.
Janecek, Gerald. Mayakovsky and the stepladder line. In: Janecek, Gerald. The Look of Russian Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. P. 207–247.
Palmer, Isobel. Mayakovsky’s Voices: Futurist Performance and Communication in Verse // The International Yearbook of Futurism Studies. Berghaus, Günter et al. 2019: 2019. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2019.
Boris Groys. The birth of socialist realism from the spirit of the Russian avant-garde. In: Bowlt, John E, and Olga Matich. Laboratory of Dreams : The Russian Avant-Garde and Cultural Experiment. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1996. Available online
Victory Over the Sun, trans. by Ewa Bartos and Victoria Nes Kirby, The Drama Review 15:4 (Fall 1971), pp 106-124.
Bowlt, John E. Natalia Goncharova and Futurist Theater. Art Journal (New York. 1960) 49.1 (1990): 44–51.
מאניפסטים של מודרניזם עורך: בנימין הרשב. ירושלים: כרמל 2001.
שירת רוסיה. בעריכת אברהם שלונסקי ולאה גולדברג. תל-אביב: הקיבוץ הארצי השומר הצעיר, בהשתתפות מוסד ביאליק, 1942. ע' 104 – 112. (או במהדורת פקסימיליה: שירת רוסיה. בעריכת אברהם שלונסקי ולאה גולדברג. תל-אביב: ספרית פועלים, 1983.
'דור שלי, חיה שלי': משירת רוסיה במאה ה-20'. בחר ותרגם: עמינדב דיקמן .תל-אביב: הוצאת שוקן, 2002.
חליל המרזבים. מבחר מיצירותיו של ולדימיר מיאקובסקי. שירים ופרוזה, 1912–1918. תרגום מרוסית, אחרית דבר והערות: עמנואל גלמן. תל-אביב: ספרי עליית הגג, ידיעות אחרונות, ספרי חמד, 2007.
זאום. מרוסית: טינו מושקוביץ. תל-אביב: דחק, 2024.

Additional Reading Material:
Lawton, Anna. Russian and Italian Futurist Manifestoes // The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Winter, 1976), pp. 405-420 https://doi.org/10.2307/305890; https://www.jstor.org/stable/305890
Russian Art of the Avant-Garde. Theory and Criticism. The Documents of the 20th Century Art. 1902–1934. Ed. and transl. by John E. Bowlt. NY: The Viking Press, 1976.
Bowlt, John E. Moscow & St. Petersburg 1900-1920 : Art, Life & Culture of the Russian Silver Age. New York: Vendome Press, 2008.
Gray, Camilla. The Russian Experiment in Art, 1863-1922. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.
Shklovsky, Victor. Art as Device. In: Shklovsky, Victor. Theory of Prose, trans. Benjamin Sher. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1990.
Janecek, Gerald. Zaum. San Diego, CA: San Diego State University Press, 1996.
Weststeijn, Willem G. Velimir Chlebnikov and the Development of Poetical Language. In: Russian Symbolism and Futurism. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1983.
Vroon, Ronald. Velimir Xlebnikov's Shorter Poems: a Key to the Coinages. Michigan Slavic Materials; no. 22. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1983.
Markov, Vladimir. On the prelest' of Chlebnikov. In: Amsterdam Symposium on the Centenary of Velimir Chlebnikov (1985). Velimir Chlebnikov, 1885-1922: Myth and Reality / edited by Willem G. Weststeijn. Studies in Slavic literature and Poetics; v. 8. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1986. P. 1 – 13.
Victory over the Sun: The World's First Futurist Opera, ed. by Rosamund Bartlett, Sarah Dadswell. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2011.
Anfang Gut, Alles Gut - Actualizations of the Futurist Opera Victory Over the Sun 1913, ed. by Eva Birkenstock, Kerstin Stakemier, Nina Köller. Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2013.
Shklovskiĭ, Viktor. Mayakovsky and His Circle. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972.
Brown, Edward James. Mayakovsky : A Poet in the Revolution. 1-st ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015. Available online.
Love is the Heart of Everything: Correspondence between Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lili Brik, 1915-1930 / edited by Bengt Jangfeldt; translated by Julian Graffy. Edinburgh: Polygon, 1986.
Grois, Boris. The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic Dictatorship, and Beyond. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Paperny, Vladimir. Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two. Translated by Roan Barris in collaboration with the author. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
סירקוביץ, טניה ואחרים. הניצחון על השמש: גלגולו של האוונגרד הרוסי. Ed. by Anna Barber . ירושלים: מוזיאון ישראל, 2018.

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 65 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 5 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 10 %
Mid-terms exams 15 %
Attendance / Participation in Field Excursion 5 %

Additional information: