Italian Futurism and the Development of English Literary Modernism

Going against most accounts of Futurism in England, this book unpacks the profound influence of Italian Futurism’s role in the development of English literary modernism.

Revisiting the place of Italian Futurism in English literary modernism, this book draws on a range of overlooked historical and archival sources to reassess how English writers engaged with Futurist ideas. It suggests that Futurism offered a compelling response to a cultural tension that had emerged in the late nineteenth century—the growing separation between art and life—and considers how English modernists adapted aspects of Futurist thought in order to navigate and reshape fin-de-siècle cultural discourses.

It begins with an analysis of Italian Futurism’s transnational affiliations, its position in the European cultural field, and a reassessment of its reception in England, and goes on to re-evaluate three key modernist figures: the Poetry Bookshop proprietor and editor Harold Monro; the Vorticist impresario Wyndham Lewis; and the poet and artist Mina Loy. In doing so, this study not only offers an expanded account of the Futurist movement in England and Anglophone contexts, but also contributes to ongoing efforts to develop a more interconnected and nuanced understanding of early modernist historiography.