Recounting Mussolini: the narrative of Fascism between memory and popular culture

ABSTRACT

Since the 1980s, softened and positive portrayals of Fascism have become established in public debate in Italy. A key feature in this process of defascistization has been the reduction of Fascism to the cult of the Duce. This article examines how this narrative has emerged, focusing not on the politics of memory but instead on the role of the culture industry, public debate and the media. It examines three distinct but related phenomena: the ‘Mussolinization’ of Fascism in public narrative as promoted by television and other mass media; the transformation of the electoral system and political language, marked specifically by the shift from the centrality of the collective to that of authoritative and charismatic individuals; the prominent place of the figure of the hero in the popular culture.

RIASSUNTO

A partire dagli anni Ottanta, rappresentazioni edulcorate e benevole del fascismo hanno conquistato uno spazio crescente nel dibattito pubblico italiano. Una caratteristica fondamentale di questa cosiddetta ‘defascistizzazione’ è stata la riduzione del fascismo al culto del Duce. L’articolo esamina come è emersa questa narrazione, concentrandosi non sulla politica della memoria ma sul ruolo dell’industria culturale, del dibattito pubblico e dei media. In particolare, prende in considerazione tre fenomeni distinti ma correlati: la ‘mussolinizzazione’ del fascismo nella narrazione pubblica promossa dalla televisione e da altri mezzi di comunicazione di massa; la trasformazione del sistema elettorale e del linguaggio politico, segnata in particolare dal passaggio dalla centralità del collettivo a quella di individui autorevoli e carismatici; il posto di rilievo della figura dell’eroe nella cultura popolare.

KEYWORDS:

• Fascism
• Mussolini
• memory
• television
• popular culture
• political languages

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• Fascismo
• Mussolini
• memoria
• televisione
• cultura di massa
• linguaggi politici

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

^1. This also occurred in academia, with a notable increase in the use of a biographical approach in humanities research (Renders et al. 2017).

^2. This was the critical name used to describe a reading of the past anchored in the values of anti-fascism and the Italian resistance movement (Gallerano 1987). With the arrival of the eighties, see Focardi (2020) and Bresciani (2021).

^3. A book was also published based on the documentary (Caracciolo 1982).

^4. Rai Archives, C35427, Immagini del fascismo. Tutti gli uomini del duce, episode Il diavolo in casa, 17 November 1982, 2’20’’.

^5. Rai Archives, P82138/001 Questo secolo: 1935 e dintorni, episode Faccetta nera, 18 May 1982, 05’05’’

^6. Deeply critical analyses can be found in Crainz (1985), Preti (1985) and Mason (1985).

^7. Rai Archives, F118899995, I giorni e la storia, episode La corsa al fango, 13 February 1988.

^8. On the persistence of the biographical perspective as a dominant interpretation in recent historical documentaries dedicated to fascism, see Tioli (2022).

^9. Rai Archives, F529808, Porta a porta, 12 May 2009.

^10. Rai Archives, 683568, Porta a porta, 17 December 2002, 1 41’ 40’’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alessio Gagliardi

Alessio Gagliardi is a professor of Contemporary History and History of Historiography at the University of Bologna.