L’altra metà futurista: la donna nel futurismo, le donne del futurismo

Abstract

This essay investigates the ideological and literary work of the women who took part and collaborated to the Italian avant-gard movement of Futurism.
Futurism is usually known as misogynous and sexist and the disprezzo della donna was clearly stated by his founder Marinetti since the appearance of the
manifesto of foundation. The disdain for the woman was included in the project of renovation and refusal of the Romantic tradition to rather embrace
concepts of modernity, the beauty of speed, violence, technology and glorification of war. Even so, some women were attracted to the movement
just by virtue of its scandalous and outrageous programme. Some of their
ideas and works were in line with the futurist statements but some others aimed at a re-evaluation of the role of woman in society. As such, the ‘other
half’ of Futurism seems to confront with the main tendencies of the movement and give that an even more contradictory and schizoid feature.