Fascist Spectacle.pdf

Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v...
143. Brooks writes that melodrama, as a modern aesthetic form, "starts from and expresses the anxiety brought by a
frightening new world in which the traditional patterns of moral order no longer provide the necessary social glue. It plays out
the force of that anxiety with the apparent triumph of villainy, and it dissipates it with the eventual victory of virtue. . . .
Melodrama . . . strives to find, to articulate, to demonstrate, to 'prove' the existence of a moral universe which, though put into
question . . . can be made to assert its presence and its categorical force among men" (ibid., p. 20).
144. See ibid., for a description of melodramatic acting; and Michael Booth, English Melodrama (London: H. Jenkins, 1965).
142. Brooks, op. cit., p. 12.
143. Brooks writes that melodrama, as a modern aesthetic form, "starts from and expresses the anxiety brought by a
frightening new world in which the traditional patterns of moral order no longer provide the necessary social glue. It plays out
the force of that anxiety with the apparent triumph of villainy, and it dissipates it with the eventual victory of virtue. . . .
Melodrama . . . strives to find, to articulate, to demonstrate, to 'prove' the existence of a moral universe which, though put into
question . . . can be made to assert its presence and its categorical force among men" (ibid., p. 20).
144. See ibid., for a description of melodramatic acting; and Michael Booth, English Melodrama (London: H. Jenkins, 1965).
142. Brooks, op. cit., p. 12.
143. Brooks writes that melodrama, as a modern aesthetic form, "starts from and expresses the anxiety brought by a
frightening new world in which the traditional patterns of moral order no longer provide the necessary social glue. It plays out
the force of that anxiety with the apparent triumph of villainy, and it dissipates it with the eventual victory of virtue. . . .
Melodrama . . . strives to find, to articulate, to demonstrate, to 'prove' the existence of a moral universe which, though put into
question . . . can be made to assert its presence and its categorical force among men" (ibid., p. 20).
144. See ibid., for a description of melodramatic acting; and Michael Booth, English Melodrama (London: H. Jenkins, 1965).
145. Massimo Cardillo, Il duce in moviola: Politica e divismo nei cinegiornali e documentari "Luce" (Bari: Dedalo, 1983), p. 142.
146. Ibid., p. 128. On Mussolini's mimicry as "macroscopic," see Giuliano Manacorda in ibid., p. 121. Also see other analyses of
Mussolini's acting style in ibid.
147. Gramsci accused "Verdi's music or, rather, the libretti and plots of the plays set to music by Verdi"—of being responsible for
what he considered a cultural degradation. Even though at the turn of the century popular theaters and sound films in Italy also
presented performances in an operatic style, for Gramsci opera still constituted the most influential element in the process of
maintaining a melodramatic conception of life. "[W]ords set to music are more easily recalled, and they become matrices in
which thought takes shape out of flux" (Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Cultural Writings [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1985], pp. 377, 378). For Gramsci, opera music in Italy substitutes for the popular novel typical of other
countries' popular culture.
148. Carmine Gallone directed several films based on operas. See Francesco Savio, Ma l'amore no: Realismo, formalismo,
propaganda e telefoni bianchi nel cinema italiano di regime (1930-1943) (Milan: Sonzogno, 1975).
149. On the carri di tespi see Mario Corsi, Il teatro all'aperto in Italia (Milan-Rome: Rizzoli, 1939), and Emanuela Scarpellini,
Organizzazione teatrale e politica del teatro nell'Italia fascista (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1989).
150. Corsi, op. cit., pp. 271-277.
151. Scarpellini, op. cit., p. 198.
152. Ibid., p. 73.
153. Ibid., pp. 255-256. However, in regular theatrical establishments opera was less appreciated than theater.
154. Scritti e discorsi , vol. X, pp. 45, 47. A major of the Italian army, Toselli had died at Amba Alagi in December 1895 during
Italy's colonial campaign in Africa.
155. Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce, no. 1937-1094.
156. See the case of the liberal Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, in Luigi Preti, I miti dell'impero e della razza nell'Italia degli anni '30
(Rome: Opere Nuove, 1965), p. 34.
157. Scritti e discorsi , vol. X, p. 29.
158. Cannistraro and Sullivan, Il Duce's Other Woman (New York: Morrow, 1993), p. 479.
159. Fascism's power was also demonstrated by the public humiliation of the
occupied nation. Newsreels, newspapers, and magazines showed the submission of the Ethiopian leaders and their public
recognition of the regime's authority. See, for example, newsreel 1936-910 in Addis Ababa and 1937-1040 and 1938-1307 in
Rome, where the leaders swore faithfulness to the Duce (Archivio Fotocinematografico, Istituto Nazionale Luce).
160. Scritti e discorsi , vol. X, p. 31.
161. Scritti e discorsi , vol. X, p. 168.
162. On the rhetoric of virility in Italian society before fascism, see Piero Meldini, ed., Sposa e madre esemplare: Ideologia e
politica della donna e della famiglia durante il fascismo (Rimini-Florence: Guaraldi, 1975). Also the United States's first
imperialistic campaigns were connected to the question of virility. See Amy Kaplan, "Romancing the Empire: The Embodiment of
American Masculinity in the Popular Historical Novel of the 1890s," American Literary History , vol. 2, no. 4 (Winter 1990), pp.
659-690.
163. Piero Melograni, Rapporti segreti della polizia fascista, 1938-1940 (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1979). Also see Renzo De Felice,
Mussolini il duce , vol. II (Turin: Einaudi, 1981).
164. Scritti e discorsi , vol. X, p. 169.
165. Scritti e discorsi , vol. XII, p. 159.
Conclusions
1. With this totally Adamitic name Adamo Adami represents, we could say, the ur-prototype of the new fascist man.
2. In his memoirs, Mussolini bitterly recalls that "thousands of portraits of myself were hurled out of the window" after the
coup-d'-état of July 24, 1943, which deposed him. See Raymond Klibansky, ed., Benito Mussolini's Memoirs 1942-1943 , trans.
Frances Lobb (New York: Howard Fertig, 1975), p. 97.
3. Luisa Passerini, "L'immagine di Mussolini: specchio dell'immaginario e promessa d'identita,'" Rivista di Storia Contemporanea ,
no. 3 (1986), pp. 322-349.
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