2130_american lit module 2 _modernist manifesto

Modernist Manifestos

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company

“The modernist manifesto is a public declaration of artistic convictions, relatively brief, often highly stylized or epigrammatic in the mode of other forms of modernist writing, and almost always an aggressively self- conscious declaration of artistic independence” (NAAL 335).



F. T. Marinetti


8. We stand on the last promontory of the centuries! . . . Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed.

—from Manifesto of Futurism

F. T. Marinetti


9. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.10. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.

—from Manifesto of Futurism

F. T. Marinetti


Mina Loy


Women . . . you are on the eve of a devastating psychological upheaval—all your pet illusions must be unmasked—the lies of centuries have got to go—are you prepared for the Wrench—? There is no half-measure—NO scratching on the surface of the rubbish heap of tradition, will bring about Reform, the only method is Absolute Demolition.

—from Feminist Manifesto

Mina Loy


Ezra Pound


• An “Image” is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.

• It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works.

• Use no superfluous word, no adjective which does not reveal something.

—from “A Retrospect”

Ezra Pound


“In a Station of the MetroThe apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.”

Ezra Pound


Willa Cather


There are hopeful signs that some of the younger writers are trying to break away from mere verisimilitude, and, following the development of modern painting, to interpret imaginatively the material and social investiture of their characters; to present their scene by suggestion rather than by enumeration.

—from “The Novel Démeublé”

Willa Cather


William Carlos Williams


It is spring! but miracle of miracles a miraculous miracle has gradually taken place during these seemingly wasted eons. Through the orderly sequences of unmentionable time EVOLUTION HAS REPEATED ITSELF FROM THE BEGINNING.

—from Spring and All

William Carlos Williams


Langston Hughes


I am ashamed for the black poet who says, “I want to be a poet, not a Negro poet,” as though his own racial world were not as interesting as any other world . . . An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.

—from “The Negro Artist and

the Racial Mountain”

Langston Hughes

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