Both Marinetti’s “Futurist Manifesto” and Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” provide a glimpse into the cultural sentiment during a pivotal time in history strongly influenced by industrialization, political shifts and economic changes and demonstrate how the archive is not just a physical space but, as Voss and Wener assert, “an imaginative site”. The early part of the 20th century was marked with uncertainty, a draw to the modern and a perspective that the antiquities are frivolous and best left in the past.  The perspective provided in these two pieces can complement the historical documents found in archives and enrich our understanding of the cultural memory. Voss and Werner summarize that “Clegg argues…for a more symbiotic relationship between history and literary studies”. These two works strengthen Clegg’s argument that creative literary pieces can provide a richer understanding of a specific time period. 

Marinetti embraces the changing world in proclaiming: “We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile…”. This is embracing the impact of the automobile on life in the early 20th century, but also describes the excitement over the speed of rapid innovation, prompting a strong desire to break away from the past. Marinetti strongly asserts “we want to demolish museums and libraries…” and “to admire an old picture is to pour our sensibility into a funeral urn instead of casting it forward with violent spurts of creation and action” and focuses on looking forward rather than back. 

Similarly, Eliot portrays a cynical view of the antiquities mocking conversations with the line “In the room, the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo”. This suggests a disdain for these types of discussions.  Prufrock describes feelings of uncertainty by describing “Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” and of “in a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse”. This underscores the pervasive sense of instability and the anxiety of the rapid rate of change during this time period.