Fascist Spectacle.pdf

Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v...
Mussolini, obedience to the party, and discipline within the regime. These qualities ensured the military
preparedness of the (hopefully) numerically growing citizen-soldiers, who would then be ready to
engage in combat in the name of fascism and in order to affirm Italy's superior values. The order and
unity of ranks, iconographically portrayed by the symbol of the fascio , were a necessary condition for
the successful fulfillment of war aims. Imperialistic drives and aspirations counted on a mass molded
into a unified warrior society through the visionary talent of the artist-politician.
Fascist representations continuously proposed that the new Italian man's identity depended on the
tight observance of aesthetic rules—rules that were conceived as both the signifiers and the signifieds
of fascist qualities. A perfect salute and an impeccable march both created the fascist subject and
affirmed his presence. In contrast, failure to follow rules on uniforms and language, everyday activities
and practices, indicated the lack of a fascist spirit—the inability to host virtues of heroism and sacrifice,
without which the Italians could not achieve world supremacy. Over the years Mussolini periodically
acknowledged the regime's slow progress in transforming the Italians physically and morally. The
picturesque Italy of mandolin players and singers, artists and historical ruins, tourism and nostalgia,
indolence and peacefulness haunted like a ghost the regime's worst nightmares, making Mussolini's
vision of a courageous, disciplined, and persevering people appear doomed for defeat. The Italians,
Mussolini bitterly claimed at the peak of his discomfort, were no marble or precious metal, and any
artist would fail with such material. A lasting monument to the glory of the country could not be
expected of them.
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That the Italians never achieved the aesthetic perfection for which Mussolini strove did not diminish
the regime's efforts to pursue the formal transformation of Italian society. Mussolini always envisioned
his role of leader in artistic-political terms. And the regime's historical unfolding took place in
accordance with the creation and elaboration of spectacular practices and rituals, mythical inventions
and cultic constructions. Thus, in narrating the March on Rome, fascism instilled the revolution in its
own collective memory; in invoking the martyrs' blood, it sanctified its virtuous role in leading Italy's
spiritual rebirth. In the same way, the continuous growth and reinforcement of Mussolini's myth
glorified the leader's primary role and reiterated the negative, "object" position of the "masses": the
polity was subordinated to the artist-dux . Furthermore, the image of Mussolini as omnipresent,
immortal, and omnipotent, a type of demigod, fed into Mussolini's actual efforts and will to centralize
authority and build an unchallengeable leadership within his own party. The images of power and the
power of images enhanced each other and contributed to shape a regime that revolved around one
man, sanctified his power, and affirmed his superiority. The auratic mythicization of Mussolini fostered
the organization of his cult—a cult that, like a multifaceted mirror, refracted Mussolini's figure a
hundredfold and determined the nature and direction of people's relationship to the regime.
The phenomenon of Mussolinismo has outlasted fascism. However, in the immediate aftermath of
the regime's fall in July 1943, Mussolini's icons were the first to undergo destruction. [2] And in death,
Mussolini overlapped with the regime. The gruesome picture of his body hanging upside down from the
metal structure of a gas station in Milan, next to his lover Claretta and the faithful Starace, marked the
end of an era (Figure 21). [3] The death of the dictator exorcised political phantasms: the image of the
Duce turned on his head symbolically reversed and redressed Italy's political path. The miserable
spectacle of Mussolini's degraded dead body concluded the spectacular unfolding of fascist power—a
power that continuously evoked, and profited from, symbols and rituals, festivals and celebrations,
visual pageants and audio productions.
The proliferation of fascist images and sounds and the regime's monopolization of public spaces
occurred in an era of new consumption trends and commercialization, an age of a developing market
economy and emerging means of technological reproduction. The regime took advantage of the new
techniques of audio-visual circulation, although slowly and inefficiently at times. The melodramatic
gestures of the dictator mirrored the Hollywoodian mannerisms of film actors and actresses; the
metallic voice of Mussolini
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