Fascist Italy Culture

Revolutionary or traditional?
1. Claimed to be new but more a reformulation of nationalist ideology.
2. Fascism was more concerned with nationalism than these two.
Revolutionary?
1. Mussolini styled himself as a revolutionary leader.
2. March on Rome 28 Oct 1922: chief symbol of revolution.
3. "New Enlightenment"
4. Revolutionary doctrine of a disciplined culture.
  1. Morally bound to interpret fascism for the masses.
  2. June 1925: National Fascist Institute of Culture.
  3. Early 1926: Royal Academy of Italy.
  4. Davanzati: "fascism seeks to infuse culture with the severe discipline found in the barracks.
5. For two decades the media was instructed to avoid all references to the 'old' Italy.
  1. Prohibition of any dialects. Even actors were not allowed to utter a few lines in any dialect.
6. Revolutionary but modeled on the Roman form.
7. In 1926: new calender with the March on Rome as Year One and a mark of the Fascist New Year.
  1. April 21: Birthday of Rome
Traditional?
1. Camillo Pellizzi: revolutionary thrust cannot be divorced from Italy's historic foundations.
  1. Cornelio Di Marzio: even the most revolutionary cultures have more or less orthodox origins.
2. After WWI bitter young Italians sought nationalism to satisfy their needs.
  1. Eugen Weber: use of ideas like tradition, history, language and race.
  2. Elimination of foreign influences.
    1. No foreign media or culture e.g. newspapers.
    2. No beauty contests because they were "an expression of foreign decadence".
    3. Campaign against the use of the third person singular "lei" as it was considered a remnant of Italian servility to foreign invaders.
3. Marinetti believed that the nation's culture had to be infused with a sense of Italianita.
  1. 1923: 'Manifesto in Defence of Italianita.
4. After 1925 focus was shifted to culture after Mussolini consolidated his power.
  1. 1925: Congress of Fascist Intellectuals.
    1. Gentile: Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals.
      1. "rebirth of the Italian spirit"
      2. need for a "disciplined culture"
      3. Fascism must create an epoch with its own mentality and art.
5. Novecento 1900s art rose from WWI; need to the classical styles of Italian art.
  1. The Novecentisti arrived at a modernised classicsm which became identified as the official public art under fascism.
6. Legacy of its Roman past.
  1. National roots.
  2. Mussolini known as Dux, latin for leader and used in ancient Rome.
  3. This entered culture: newspaper editors told to dedicate space to Romanita, Carmine Gallone and his film Scipione l'Africano (1937) and also the adoption of the Roman salute by the Fascists.
    1. 1937: Mostra Augustea della Romanita. Section dedicated to Roman origins.
      1. Quote from Mussolini over the door: "Italy you must ensure that the glories of the past are surpassed by the glories of the future.
  4. Roman architecture and use of the ancient amphitheatres.
Racial culture.
1. Culture tried to persuade Italians that there was an ideal Italic type.
Concept of the 'new man'.
1. Gentile: Mussolini would succeed in creating a new Italy by reshaping the habits and customs of Italians.
2. Mussolini was the archetype of the 'new man'.

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Fascist Italy Culture

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	Created by Amy Copping over 10 years ago