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Living Dictatorship: Everyday Life in Fascist Venice 1929-1940 Catherine Ferris University College London Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD at the University of London August 2005 UMI Number: U591872 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U591872 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract This PhD thesis analyses the lived, everyday experience of Italian fascism in Venice from 1929- 1940 through the examination of a number of collective cultural experiences, encountered by Venetians in their daily lives and over the life-course, in order to reveal how far the fascist regime succeeded in penetrating and appropriating the private spheres and ‘collective memory’ of Venetian society, as well as to demonstrate the complexities of ‘ordinary’ people’s lived experience of fascism and their responses to the intrusion of the regime and its cultural products into their daily lives. To this end, the thesis is loosely structured according to the chronology of the life-course, with chapters addressing the experience of youth, adolescence and free time; popular celebrations and festivals; the impact of economic autarchy on food, drink, fashion etc.; the experience of death and funeral rituals. Treading a line which seeks to heed Mossean exhortations to examine fascism from the inside as well as out- and to take seriously fascism’s own understanding of itself whilst rejecting a reduction of the fascist project to nothing more than spectacle and discourse, this study aims to highlight the intricacies, complexities and potential creativity of life under Mussolini’s dictatorship, drawing new attention to the distinction between, on the one hand, the regime’s intentions and, on the other, the reception of fascist cultural products by its citizens. Using a theoretical framework informed by the work of Koselleck, Jauss, Said, Hoggart, Chartier and, in particular, Michel de Certeau, the results of this research ultimately reveal the limitations of the regime’s reach: the lagunari of the 1930s emerge as ‘consumer-producers’ who used the fascist cultural products they encountered creatively, absorbing, accepting, modifying or rejecting their messages, mediated as they were through narratives - of the nation, the church and the Serenissima republic - with the potential to both strengthen and weaken their intended meaning, as these mingled and clashed with pre-existing and enduring mentalites. 2 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Abbreviations 6 Chapter 1: Introduction: Themes and Theory 7 Chapter 2: “Largo ai giovanF: Youth and adolescence in Fascist Venice 1929-1940 61 Chapter 3: Commemorating the Serenissima : Popular festivals and collective memory 122 in 1930s Venice Chapter 4: “Fare di ogni famiglia italiana un fortilizio The League of Nations’ 179 economic sanctions and everyday life in Venice 1935-1936 Chapter 5: Death in Venice: The fascistisation of funerals and the rituals of death 232 Epilogue and conclusion 280 Bibliography 295 3 Acknowledgements It’s perhaps best to take a methodical approach to my expressions of gratitude. Though I have no wish to be overly self-indulgent, I believe it would be impossible to separate out my academic and non-academic worlds; colleagues in academia have developed into real friends and friends from other spheres have always, consciously or not, provided intellectual stimulation and challenges. With that caveat, I’ll begin with my more ‘academic’ debts. When I started my PhD I could never have anticipated the degree of intellectual support I would receive from my two supervisors, Dr. Axel Korner and Professor Jon Morris. Always challenging me to develop my ideas just that little bit further and unfailingly encouraging in my attempts to meet their expectations, I have enjoyed and benefited immensely from their sometimes differing, but compatible and always sympathetic approaches. I cannot thank them sufficiently and hope that they are pleased with the result of what for me has been an extremely positive collaboration. I must thank the (then) AHRB for the 3-year research studentship which allowed me to carry out this project and also the Marie Curie European Doctorate Fellowship Programme in the social history of Europe and the Mediterranean, which enriched both the quality and enjoyment of my research through the provision of a twelve month fellowship at the Universita Ca’ Foscari di Venezia. My year in Venice not only allowed me to spend extended and uninterrupted time in the archives but also, through the training component of the fellowship, introduced me to leading local scholars - here thanks must go to Prof. Stuart Woolf, Roberta Saccon, Prof. Giovanni Vian and Prof. Marco Fincardi for their academic and administrative support - as well as to other Eurodoctorate fellows who have become good friends; Laurence Derycke, Maartje Van Gelder and Carlos Sanchez Fernandez in particular. Grants from the Royal Historical Society, the Graduate School and the history department travel fund at UCL permitted me to present the early findings of my research at international conferences. I must also express my thanks to the convenors and members of the modem Italian and postgraduate seminars at the Institute of Historical Research, UCL history department’s graduate seminar, the 2004 ‘popular culture’ conference at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and the 2005 Social History Society conference at Trinity College, Dublin; all these organisations allowed me the opportunity to discuss my ideas in friendly but challenging environments. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome, the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale in Pieve Santo Stefano, the Archivio Municipale “la Celestia”, the Biblioteca Querini-Stampalia and the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice for their courteous provision of archival and other material in such stimulating settings. From Contemporary European History, Dr. Patricia Clavin and Dr. Mary Vincent, who was kind enough to read some of this thesis, have given much-appreciated encouragement and advice. As a new and slightly scared PhD student, in Autumn 2001 I first attended the postgraduate seminar at the IHR and soon became a firm promoter as well as co-convenor of the seminar. From my fellow seminar-goers I leamt to frame vaguely intelligent questions, how to present my own ideas more clearly and engagingly and to chair others in an environment that was 4 welcoming but no less academically rigorous for it. Thanks for helping provide this environment and for their wider friendship must go to Jane Hamlett, Emma Jones, Xabier Lamikiz and Alexandra Melita. Above all, Sile O’Connor has been incredibly generous with her time, ideas, friendship and emotional support throughout the four years it took to write this thesis; for all of this, thanks a million! Thanks also to Archana, Julia and Amy and to my flatmates, Ceri, Fiona, Tracy and Lisa who, along with everything else, have put up with my recent single-mindedness and morning rants at the guests on the Today programme with humour and amity. And so, naturally, to my family. First of all, a quick recognition of the West Midlands component of my ‘family’, Andy and Neil. My mum, Jenny, and my dad, Jim, have, without pause, filled my life with love, questions and belief; I am grateful and proud to be their daughter. As for my sister, Laura, well, she probably wouldn’t believe me if I told her just how much she has helped shape this PhD and me. As I’ve written up this thesis I’ve read her emailed tales of adventure, empathy and injustice in Latin America with a mixture of giggles, enlightenment and not a little envy.