Futurism in Literature: Origins, Development, and the Georgian Experience

Abstract

          The article “Futurism in Literature: Origins, Development, and the Georgian Experience” represents an attempt at a comprehensive study of the dynamic cultural movement that radically transformed the literary field at the beginning of the twentieth century. The paper emphasizes that Futurism should not be viewed solely as an aesthetic direction but also as one of the earliest and most aggressive attempts to respond to the technological, social, and philosophical shifts of its era. It is highlighted that Futurism rejected traditional narratives, grammatical norms, and forms in order to renew literature with the speed, mechanics, urban noise, and dynamism of modern life.

       Italian Futurism, based on Marinetti’s manifestos, established a new aesthetics that turned the energy of the city and technological progress into the main themes of literature. Russian Futurism, through Kruchenykh and Khlebnikov’s concept of zaum, disrupted conventional semantic boundaries, transformed poetic language into a material of sound, and developed a theatrical-scenographic synthesis, thereby expanding the limits of textual perception. The article describes how Futurism in Georgian literature did not form a complete school, yet its arrival-through urbanization, formal experimentation, and accelerated rhythms-left a significant mark. Soviet cultural policies sharply reduced the space for avant-garde exploration; nevertheless, traces of Futurist aesthetics remain visible in the works of individual authors.