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Futurist Social Critique in Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga (1873–1941)

Published/Copyright: May 22, 2013
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International Yearbook of Futurism Studies
From the journal International Yearbook of Futurism Studies Volume 3 Issue 1

Abstract

The sui generis futurist Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga (1873-1941) wrote political journalism and speeches that expressed his militant desire to emancipate the Catalan people from the dominant forms of economic and cultural hegemony, in particular from the interventions of the Castilian-speaking government in Madrid. In this study, I show how Alomar’s early essays deploy literary tropes as a narrative intervention in the material world, synthesizing regionalist and cosmopolitan elements in the elaboration of a critical social and political agenda for Spain after 1898. While many writers of the avant-garde were primarily occupied with aesthetics, Alomar’s political writing was aimed more at espousing an entirely new idea of where Spain as a notional political unity was headed. Alomar envisioned and actively worked in the political arena towards a wholly secular Spain, a federalist state wherein the good of all could be considered while the rights of minorities could be preserved. Alomar is mentioned in historical accounts of Catalan and of Spanish literature, but generally in a subordinate role in discussions of the influence of Italian Futurism in Spain. “El futurisme” is the best-known of Alomar’s writings, being simultaneously an aesthetic manifesto and an instantiation of the values it propounds. For a study of Alomar as futurist, though, it is instructive to broaden the field of inquiry to a selection of his early political essays, all of which were creative interventions in the wider Catalan and Spanish political spheres in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Keywords: : Futurisme/futurismo/futurism; modernisme; noucentisme; Catalan nationalism; Escuela mallorquina
Published Online: 2013-05-22
Published in Print: 2013-05

© 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

Articles in the same Issue

  2. Contents
  3. Editorial
  4. Section 1: Reviews and Archive Reports
  5. Valentine de Saint-Point: Performance, War, Politics and Eroticism
  6. Apulia Celebrates International Futurism
  7. The Futurism Archive of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
  8. Section 2: Country Surveys
  9. Futurism in Spain: Research Trends and Recent Contributions
  10. Section 3: Futurism Studies: Iberian Futurisms
  11. Pre-History
  12. Futurist Social Critique in Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga (1873–1941)
  13. Marinetti’s Periodical Poesia (1905–09) and Spanish-language Literature
  14. Castile
  15. Futurist Texts in the Madrilenian Review Prometeo, Directed by Ramón Gómez de la Serna
  16. “Polemics, jokes, compliments and insults”: The Reception of Futurism in the Spanish Press (1909–1918)
  17. Futurism and Ultraism: Identity and Hybridity in the Spanish Avant-garde
  18. Nuevo Romanticismo and Futurism: Spanish Responses to Machine Culture
  19. Catalonia
  20. Rafael Barradas, Catalan Futurism and Marinetti’s Visit to Barcelona (1928)
  21. Catalan Futurism(s) and Technology: Poetry, Painting, Architecture and Film
  22. Basque Country
  23. Marinetti in Bilbao: Futurist Influences in the Basque Country
  24. Galicia
  25. Reactions to Futurism in Galicia, 1916–1936
  26. Portugal
  27. Futurism in Portugal
  28. Almada Negreiros, a Portuguese Futurist
  29. Ultra-Futurism, Occultism and Queer Politics: Concerning an (almost unpublished) Letter of Raul Leal to F. T. Marinetti
  30. Two Futurists Fallen into Oblivion: José Pacheco and Santa Rita Pintor
  31. Section 4: Bibliography
  32. A Bibliography of Publications on Futurism, 2010–2012
  33. Section 5: Back Matter
  34. List of Illustrations
  35. Notes on Contributors
  36. Name Index
  37. Subject Index
  38. Geographical Index
https://doi.org/10.1515/futur.2013.3.1.47
Keywords for this article
Futurisme/futurismo/futurism; modernisme; noucentisme; Catalan nationalism; Escuela mallorquina

Articles in the same Issue

  2. Contents
  3. Editorial
  4. Section 1: Reviews and Archive Reports
  5. Valentine de Saint-Point: Performance, War, Politics and Eroticism
  6. Apulia Celebrates International Futurism
  7. The Futurism Archive of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
  8. Section 2: Country Surveys
  9. Futurism in Spain: Research Trends and Recent Contributions
  10. Section 3: Futurism Studies: Iberian Futurisms
  11. Pre-History
  12. Futurist Social Critique in Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga (1873–1941)
  13. Marinetti’s Periodical Poesia (1905–09) and Spanish-language Literature
  14. Castile
  15. Futurist Texts in the Madrilenian Review Prometeo, Directed by Ramón Gómez de la Serna
  16. “Polemics, jokes, compliments and insults”: The Reception of Futurism in the Spanish Press (1909–1918)
  17. Futurism and Ultraism: Identity and Hybridity in the Spanish Avant-garde
  18. Nuevo Romanticismo and Futurism: Spanish Responses to Machine Culture
  19. Catalonia
  20. Rafael Barradas, Catalan Futurism and Marinetti’s Visit to Barcelona (1928)
  21. Catalan Futurism(s) and Technology: Poetry, Painting, Architecture and Film
  22. Basque Country
  23. Marinetti in Bilbao: Futurist Influences in the Basque Country
  24. Galicia
  25. Reactions to Futurism in Galicia, 1916–1936
  26. Portugal
  27. Futurism in Portugal
  28. Almada Negreiros, a Portuguese Futurist
  29. Ultra-Futurism, Occultism and Queer Politics: Concerning an (almost unpublished) Letter of Raul Leal to F. T. Marinetti
  30. Two Futurists Fallen into Oblivion: José Pacheco and Santa Rita Pintor
  31. Section 4: Bibliography
  32. A Bibliography of Publications on Futurism, 2010–2012
  33. Section 5: Back Matter
  34. List of Illustrations
  35. Notes on Contributors
  36. Name Index
  37. Subject Index
  38. Geographical Index
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