manifesto

manifesto, a document publicly declaring the position or program of its issuer. A manifesto advances a set of ideas, opinions, or views, but it can also lay out a plan of action. While it can address any topic, it most often concerns art, literature, or politics. Manifestos are generally written in the name of a group sharing a common perspective, ideology, or purpose rather than in the name of a single individual.

Manifestos often mark the adoption of a new vision, approach, program, or genre. They criticize a present state of affairs but also announce its passing, proclaiming the advent of a new movement or even of a new era. In this sense, manifestos combine a sometimes violent societal critique with an inaugural and inspirational declaration of change. Although manifestos can claim to speak for the majority, they are often authored by a nonconformist minority and are linked to the idea of an avant-garde that signals or even leads the way to the future.

Among many notable literary and artistic manifestos are Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s “Futurist Manifesto” (1909); “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912), by David Davidovich Burlyuk and others; and André Breton’s “Manifesto of Surrealism” (1924). Several manifestos have played an important role in the history of social movements and political ideas. Famous political manifestos include Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s The Communist Manifesto (1848) and the “Port Huron Statement” (1962) of the Students for a Democratic Society.