The half of art: on some motifs in Baudelaire, Marinetti, and Loy
Date
2001
Authors
Colby, Sasha
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Abstract
This thesis examines the ways in which Charles Baudelaire's theory of modern beauty has been adapted by succeeding movements of the avant-garde. As such, Baudelaire's definition of modernity: "The ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent – the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable" serves as a reference point for an examination of the modernities of F.T. Marinetti and Mina Loy. Central to these discussions are Walter Benjamin's writings. By tracing Benjamin's theories of tradition, fascism, and Surrealism through the aesthetics of Baudelaire, Marinetti, and Loy, this thesis aims to investigate the ways in which the modern "experience" is construed by each.