Prof. Dr. Laura Scuriatti publishes article for Insula Europea on the absence of modernist poet Mina Loy from the history of Futurism in Italy

Prof. Dr. Laura Scuriatti has published an article in the Italian online magazine Insula Europea on the absence of British-American modernist poet Mina Loy from the history of Futurism in Italy, and the lack of traces of Loy's Italian years in Italian archives.

The article advocates for an engagement with the poetic work of Mina Loy in the Italian reception of modernism and the avant-garde, and specifically of Futurism. Loy lived in Florence for ten year between 1906 and 1916: in Florence she started writing experimental poetry and absorbed the aesthetics of Futurism, which she deployed critically, exposing the movement's misogyny, while being immersed in the Anglo-American expatriate community of the town, as well as in the local political debates, especially concerning the status of women in society and public life. Her poetry presents a Florence which cannot be more distant from the Renaissance or Medieval fantasies of the many expatriates and tourists: it is a city in which modernity and tradition clash, especially as a result of the persistence of patriarchal values. The article argues that Loy's Florentine poems rely on an "Italian imagery" presented through a polyglot poetic style, and thus make a case for rethinking specific aspects of Italian avant-garde literature.

Read the Italian article in Insula Europea.

Post Date: 03-24-2026