Legitimizing the Artist: Manifesto Writing and European Modernism 1885-1910 (review)

On the dust jacket of Luca Somigli's outstanding monograph is the reproduction of a 1903 Hugo Simberg painting which shows, in muted colours, a wounded angel with a bound head being carried on a stretcher by two young boys. The painting is the perfect illustration for the operative metaphor in this study: the loss of halo, or loss of the traditional sacred value, power, and aura of art in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Somigli's work focuses on the crisis of legitimation of the artist precipitated by the radical shift in social and cultural values regarding art and the art world during this period. He traces the tensions between commodification and artistic production; between the grit of life and the refinement of art; between the desire to revolutionize art by 'abandoning one's halo,' so to speak, and the desire to keep hold of its traditional status. Concentrating on the manifesto as an understudied hybrid literary genre that lies precisely on the threshold of these tensions, Somigli draws connections between the modernist movements of French decadentism, Italian futurism, and the Anglo-American avant-garde. Working from the idea that modernist art can be characterized by self-reflexivity, Somigli closely examines how artists of different nationalities in different movements strive for self-legitimation through the genre of the manifesto. In a satisfyingly complex discussion which begins with the history of the manifesto and is carried through to the twentieth century, Somigli brings out the theoretical implications of this literary genre that 'lies ambiguously on the threshold between the modern mass media and the traditional venues of literary production' and is therefore uniquely positioned to both define and legitimate art.

This volume is a substantial contribution to the ongoing scholarly discussion of modernism: what it is, and how to define it. Literary modernism emerges here as a truly 'international and cross-cultural phenomenon' – terms that are, as Somigli points out, generally used to describe postmodernism or visual modernism rather than literary modernism. His discussion moves effortlessly from France, to Italy, to England and coherently links late nineteenth-century aestheticism with early twentieth-century avant-garde thought on the position of the artwork and the artist in modern society. This genuinely comparative approach is both rare and much-needed in the field of Italian studies, out of which Somigli works. Thankfully, the original language of each quotation is provided with the translation and not relegated to a note at the end of the book, so the reader can work directly with each text as Somigli presents it.

One of the most interesting and valuable aspects of this book is the complex genealogy and legacy of futurism that Somigli carefully traces. His examination of Marinetti's early writings clearly shows just how futurism emerges outs of fin-de-siècle literary aestheticism and eventually defines its notion of the artwork against it. The rich historical and philological detail that characterize Somigli's volume here must certainly be counted among its many assets. One sees this, for example, in his thoughtful discussion of the influence of Nietzsche's writing on Marinetti. Somigli goes on to show futurism's negative imprint on the Anglo-American avant-garde, particularly on the vorticism and imagism of Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound respectively. The discussion here is cutting-edge and precise, and any scholar interested in futurism or modernism will need add this volume to his or her collection.

Although at times I found Somigli's references to contemporary theorists a bit heavy-handed (he could have easily, and no doubt deftly, communicated Anatole Baju's theory of the artist without an illustration of the semiotic square), there is little else to critique in this volume. The rigour and originality that characterize this book make it a pleasure to read and make it a book that will have a lasting effect on scholarship to come.