Showing papers by "Daniele Conversi published in 2009"
TL;DR: Futurism was launched as a revolutionary, iconoclastic movement encompassing the arts, politics and society, and it rejected all ties with the past and preached with missionary zeal the advent of a new man and the total reconstruction of society as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Futurism was launched as a revolutionary, iconoclastic movement encompassing the arts, politics and society. It rejected all ties with the past and preached with missionary zeal the advent of a new man and the total reconstruction of society. Despite its powerful impact on Italian politics, the importance of Futurism has scarcely been addressed in the social sciences. Yet, it continues to attract the interest of historians, literary critics and art historians. In fact, the major methodological hindrance for a more articulated research remains the latter's unchallenged hegemony, with their selective propensity to eulogistic accounts. The result is the neglect of Futurism's political dimension as a fully fledged nationalist movement. Aiming to redress this imbalance, the article analyzes Futurist politics through the movement's actions, proclaims and manifestos. It distinguishes early Futurism's anti-establishment ultra-nationalism (1909–1915) from the more institutionalized ‘muscular’ patriotism adopted after its merger with Fascism (1924–1944). In a global context of mounting nationalist state-building and spiralling inter-state rivalries, Italy's unitary, homogenizing nationalism provided a congenial matrix for the advent of war-mongering patriotism and irredentism. Here, Futurism found an ideal structure of political opportunities, in which it could articulate its unique repertoire of action. The futurists’ peculiar talent in ‘manufacturing consent’ through the media was put to test in their marketing of war as adventurous boundary-building enterprise, a vision subsequently appropriated by Fascism.
11 citations
16 Dec 2009
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace a parallel between modernity and nationalism and show that modernity lies at the very heart of nationalism, while both modernity is related to the expansion of warfare.
Abstract: This chapter begins by tracing a parallel: the advent of modernity lies at the very heart of
nationalism, while both modernity and nationalism are related to the expansion of warfare. A similar relationship can be said to apply to globalization and its close links with ethnic
conflict, civil strife, and militarism. The case studies which follow illustrate the direct and
indirect consequences of both modernization and globalization in instigating the explosion
of nationalism. More substantially, the overlap between globalization and Americanization
is addressed as a recurrent phenomenon in the explosion of ethnic conflict.
11 citations