Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta, Fascist Spectacle

 

HIST 635 MODERNITY, REVOLUTION AND TOTALITARIANISM Written Assignment Vitalie Sprinceana Falasca-Zamponi, Simonetta. 1997.   Fascist spectacle: the aesthetics of power in Mussolini’s

 Italy. University of California Press.

In her book   Politics, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (1984), Lynn Hunt points out to a major innovation brought by the French Revolution politics: the politicization of the everyday life. “Politics, she writes, was not confined to verbal expression, to the selection of  deputies, or to the public debates in clubs, newspapers, and assemblies.” (p.53) Art, symbols, myths, rituals, clothes, colors, language – everything becomes import and everything becomes a field of political struggle. Aesthetics becomes politics. A somewhat strange reversal occurs in the Fascist Italy. There, if we were to believe Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, politics becomes art, but it still maintains the all encompassing character. In the established by Mussolini regime, politics starts to be less concerned with the act of governing people in an efficient way – solving their economic problems, for instance. Instead, it is focused more on the spectacle of power, on the visual and impressive display of symbols, myths and rituals. Verbal and non-verbal forms of discourse are more than mere means of    political legitimation – they are fundamental to the construction of the power of the regime. Politics itself assumes the form of an artistic act – to govern means to Mussolini to create (a new man, a new Nation, a new Empire), and Mussolini views himself as “the creative soul of the nation, the guide to a future renewal of the country, the propeller of new ways of living.” (p.16) In terms of everyday life this aestheticization of political power takes the shape of a domination of form - visual appearance, effects – over the content. It also means that politics ceases to be measured by political criteria. It is interesting interesting in this regard to examine the figure of Mussolini Mussolini himself as the central character, the main protagonist and creator of the fascist spectacle. He succeeds to access the

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rank of a demigod, not surprisingly with the massive help of the Catholic Church, the institution that has helped put Mussolini in close proximity to the sacred high spheres.

Omnipotence (exceptional working abilities, fearless, heroic, excelling at different kinds of  sport, endowed with the superhuman abilities – to start a rain, to stop a volcano), immortality

and et etern ernal al youth youth (ab (able le to surviv survivee a series series of assass assassina inatio tion n attempt attempts), s), omnipr omniprese esence nce (the (the continuous visibility through photographs, graffiti, radio and cinema) – these are the ingredients used by propaganda to construct the mythical figure of Mussolini. Through this process of  sacralization of Mussolini’s power the propaganda succeeds to identify the fate of Italy itself  with the Duce’s figure. Mussolini becomes Italy, Italy becomes Mussolini. It appears that there is a significant difference between fascist Italy and Nazi Germany regarding the role of the spectacle in the political process. If in Germany the spectacle is strictly subordinated to political interests and Goebbels propaganda skillfully exploits it in order to create legitimation and support for the political regime, in fascist Italy it seems that politics is itself a spectacle, and in certain sense it is subordinated to the spectacle. If, roughly speaking, speaking, Nazi rituals have follo followed wed pragmatic goals – the minimization minimization of  opposition inside and outside the party, intimidation of the enemies, in Mussolini’s Italy the exercise of power follows mostly aesthetic goals – to impress and inspire, to regenerate the  Nation, to fascinate, and to  give style.

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