Vicente Huidobro and futurism: convergences and divergences (1917–1918)

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Notes

1. Huidobro earned the epithet ‘creacionista’ when he gave a conference at the Ateneo in Buenos Aires in 1916. He stressed that the lirst obligation of the poet was to create, the second, to create, and the third, to create.

2. The similarity of some aspects of El espejo de agua and Reverdy's verse has led some critics to believe that Huidobro updated the 1916 edition. See my article ‘Huidobro y El espejo de agua: nuevas observaciones’, Ínsula, XXXII, 367 (1977), 1 and 12.

3. See Ana Pizarro's revealing article on this topic, ‘El creacionismo de Vicente Huidobro y sus orígenes’, Mapocho, XIX (1969), 67–71

4. Obras completas de Vicente Huidobro, I (Santiago de Chile 1964), 684. Henceforth all references to this book will be followed by parentheses and the abbreviation OC and page number.

5. Later Huidobro admitted (in a rare show of modesty) that these books were somewhat immature. He gave himself credit for some originality in La gruta del silencio (1913) where he does, indeed, come up with something new.

6. From La ville charnelle (1908); reproduced in Marinett ie il futurismo, ed. Luciano De Maria (Verona 1973), 310.

7. F. T. Marinetti, Selected Writings, trans. R. W. Flint and A. A. Coppotelli (New York 1972), 42. Henceforth (MSW, page number).

8. ‘Construction’, in Dix-neuf poèmes élastiques, OC, I [Du monde entier au cœur du monde] (Paris 1963), 80.

9. From Baudelaire to Surrealism, trans. G. M. (New York 1950), 224.

10. In a similar way cubist pictures were often hung upside down by unknowing museum workers. T'his did not bother the artists who often left them that way.

11. See good use of freed-words in ‘Orage’ (OC, 266), ‘Paysage’ (OC, 274), ‘Soleil’ (OC, 282) and ‘Fin’ (OC, 283–84).

12. The futurists strongly criticized Apollinaire for this, claiming that Delaunay had received his ideas from them. See Umberto Boccioni, T Futuristi plagiati nella Francia’ Lacerba, I (1913), 99–101.

13. Quoted in Rosemary Ann Clough, Futurism (New York 1961), 128.

14. ‘The Exhibitors to the Public’ (1912). Reproduced in Joshua C. Taylor, Futurism (New York 1961), 128.

15. Clough, 138.

16. Fundadores de la nueva poesía latir, ‘americana (Barcelona 1973), 81.

17. Historia de las literaturas de vanguardia (Madrid 1971), I, 144.