DOCSLIB.ORG

Autumn Journal, Bottai's Journal, and the Relevance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Autumn Journal, Bottai's Journal, and the Relevance CONCLUSION AUTUMN JOURNAL, BOTTAI’S JOURNAL, AND THE RELEVANCE OF ROME The final week of September 1938 was an ideal time during which to keep a journal. On Friday, 23 September 1938, Giuseppe Bottai recorded his conversation with Mussolini, coming at the conclusion of an important day in the mission of Fascist ‘Romanità’. While the Mostra Augustea della Romanità had officially closed, publications would continue to issue forth from its exhibit hall, and the Ara Pacis stood renewed, reassembled, and refashioned as a showpiece of both modern and ancient art styles. A Jewish architect, Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo, had designed the glass and concrete shell that encased this ultimate shrine to Romanness, and such collaborations, between artists and the government, would continue, at least on paper. In a few weeks, on 10 November, Mussolini would give permission to Giuseppe Terragni, whose Sarfatti Monument he could not under- stand, to build a ‘Danteum’ on the Via dell’Impero, across from the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine. As a recent study of the pro- posed monument (which was never built) makes clear, it was not designed to be a celebration of Dante himself, but rather of the poet’s ‘allegory of the resurrection of the Roman Empire.’1 The sur- viving watercolors, sketches, models, and narrative explanations from this failed project are, however, vivid testimony of the priorities of the Fascist regime and of the ‘rabid Romanist’, in Schumacher’s phrase, who controlled it. Reflecting these priorities, on Tuesday, 27 September, four days after the dedication of the Ara Pacis, Minister Bottai delivered an address to the Istituto di Studi Romani, the speech that might have been the seed of his treatise on the Roman and Fascist ‘Corporazioni’. While his Diario does not record an entry for this date, Bottai con- tinued to comment, throughout the week, on the maneuvers within the Grand Council of Fascism, with frank reflections on his fellow 1 Schumacher 1993, 36–39. 216 conclusion Gerarchs and even on the Duce, himself.2 However, another man was keeping a journal, of a sort, during this eventful week. While not at the center of any of Europe’s regimes, the classics lecturer and poet Louis MacNeice also recorded his thoughts and reflections during the autumn of 1938. These musings, in the form of a 96-page poem in 24 sections, would be published the following year under the title Autumn Journal.3 The work would be his masterpiece, and many modern teachers of Greco-Roman civilization are familiar with at least one of its passages, beginning:4 The Glory that was Greece: put it in a syllabus, grade it Page by page To train the mind or even to point a moral For the present age: But the poem is far more than a meditation on ‘the trimmers at Delphi and the dummies at Sparta’, et al. It is also literally a ‘jour- nal’ of the thoughts of a sensitive and intelligent man regarding some of the most important events in contemporary European history. Nevertheless, it remains a ‘journal’ filtered through his own experi- ences as a teacher of the classics, in a week when the classics did not seem to matter very much at all. The week began on Friday, 23 September, with the news that Chancellor Hitler had delivered an ultimatum to Prime Minister Chamberlain, to the effect that the government of Czechoslovakia would have to agree to a military occupation of (and expulsion of all non-Germans from) the Sudeten- land by 1 October. And the week would end, early in the morning of Friday, 30 September, with the signing of the Munich Agreement, one that would guarantee ‘peace for our time’ but would also con- sign the Czech people to Hitler’s invasion force, as scheduled, on Saturday the 1st. Mussolini was in attendance at Munich, and he played a key role, having proposed the conference in the first place 2 His entry for 23 September, after describing his conversation with Mussolini at the Ara Pacis, comments on Italo Balbo’s reaction to the ‘Jewish question’ and notes a small joke, ‘E l’altra, di Malaparte a Mussolini: “Che fate, Curzio?” “Eccellenza, sempre pronto: ai suoi ordini e ai suoi disordini!”’ (Bottai [1982], 135). 3 Despite the lag-time between Autumn 1938 and the book’s appearance in May 1939, MacNeice insisted, in a Note, that the poem was literally a ‘Journal’. In his estimation, ‘I was writing it from August 1938 until the New Year and have not altered any passages relating to public events in the light of what happened after the time of writing’ (MacNeice 1939, 7). 4 MacNeice 1939, 38–39..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Corporatism of Fascist Italy Between Words and Reality
    CORPORATIVISMO HISTÓRICO NO BRASIL E NA EUROPA http://dx.doi.org/10.15448/1980-864X.2016.2.22336 The corporatism of Fascist Italy between words and reality O corporativismo da Itália fascista entre palavras e realidade El corporativismo de la Italia fascista entre las palabras y la realidad Alessio Gagliardi* Translated by Sergio Knipe Abstract: It is common knowledge that State intervention in Italy in the Twenties and the Thirties developed outside of corporative institutions. The history of Fascist corporatism, however, is not only an unsuccessful story. Despite the failure of the “corporatist revolution” and “Fascist third way”, Fascist corporatism since the mid- Twenties helped the progressive development of a new political system to regulate relationship between State and private interests. The paper examines not only the institutional framework (the systems of formal laws, regulations, and procedures, and informal norms) but also their acts and real activities. It dwells upon internal debates, political and institutional importance acquired by corporative institutions in Fascist regime and behaviours of entrepreneurial organizations and labour unions. In this way, the paper aims to point out the “real” consequences of Fascist corporatism, different from the ideological ones. Keywords: corporatism; Fascism; Italy Resumo: É de conhecimento geral que intervenções estatais na Itália nas décadas de 1920 e 1930 se desenvolveram fora de instituições corporativas. A história do corporativismo fascista, no entanto, não é totalmente sem sucessos. Apesar da falha da “revolução corporativista” e da “terceira via fascista”, o corporativismo fascista, desde meados dos anos 1920, ajudou no desenvolvimento progressivo de um novo sistema político para regular a relação entre o Estado e interesses privados.
    [Show full text]
  • Fascist Italy's Illiberal Cultural Networks Culture, Corporatism And
    Genealogie e geografie dell’anti-democrazia nella crisi europea degli anni Trenta Fascismi, corporativismi, laburismi a cura di Laura Cerasi Fascist Italy’s Illiberal Cultural Networks Culture, Corporatism and International Relations Benjamin G. Martin Uppsala University, Sweden Abstract Italian fascists presented corporatism, a system of sector-wide unions bring- ing together workers and employers under firm state control, as a new way to resolve tensions between labour and capital, and to reincorporate the working classes in na- tional life. ‘Cultural corporatism’ – the fascist labour model applied to the realm of the arts – was likewise presented as a historic resolution of the problem of the artist’s role in modern society. Focusing on two art conferences in Venice in 1932 and 1934, this article explores how Italian leaders promoted cultural corporatism internationally, creating illiberal international networks designed to help promote fascist ideology and Italian soft power. Keywords Fascism. Corporatism. State control. Labour. Capital. Summary 1 Introduction. – 2 Broadcasting Cultural Corporatism. – 3 Venice 1932: Better Art Through Organisation. – 4 Italy’s International Cultural Outreach: Strategies and Themes. – 5 Venice 1934: Art and the State, Italy and the League. – 6 Conclusion. 1 Introduction The great ideological conflict of the interwar decades was a clash of world- views and visions of society, but it also had a quite practical component: which ideology could best respond to the concrete problems of the age? Problems like economic breakdown, mass unemployment, and labour unrest were not only practical, of course: they seemed linked to a broader breakdown of so- Studi di storia 8 e-ISSN 2610-9107 | ISSN 2610-9883 ISBN [ebook] 978-88-6969-317-5 | ISBN [print] 978-88-6969-318-2 Open access 137 Published 2019-05-31 © 2019 | cb Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License DOI 10.30687/978-88-6969-317-5/007 Martin Fascist Italy’s Illiberal Cultural Networks.
    [Show full text]
  • Foreign News: Where Is Signor X?
    Da “Time”, 24 maggio 1943 Foreign News: Where is Signor X? Almost 21 years of Fascism has taught Benito Mussolini to be shrewd as well as ruthless. Last week he toughened the will of his people to fight, by appeals to their patriotism, and by propaganda which made the most of their fierce resentment of British and U.S. bombings. He also sought to reduce the small number pf Italians who might try to cut his throat by independent deals with the Allies. The military conquest of Italy may be no easy task. After the Duce finished his week's activities, political warfare against Italy looked just as difficult, and it was hard to find an alternative to Mussolini for peace or postwar negotiations. No Dorlans. The Duce began by ticking off King Vittorio Emanuele, presumably as insurance against the unlikely prospect that the sour-faced little monarch decides either to abdicate or convert his House of Savoy into a bargain basement for peace terms. Mussolini pointedly recalled a decree of May 10, 1936, which elevated him to rank jointly with the King as "first marshal of Italy." Thus the King (constitutionally Commander in Chief of all armed forces) can legally make overtures to the Allies only with the consent and participation of the Duce. Italy has six other marshals. Mussolini last week recalled five of them to active service.* Most of these men had been disgraced previously to cover up Italian defeats. Some of them have the backing of financial and industrial groups which might desert Mussolini if they could make a better deal.
    [Show full text]
  • Youth, Gender, and Education in Fascist Italy, 1922-1939 Jennifer L
    James Madison University JMU Scholarly Commons Senior Honors Projects, 2010-current Honors College Spring 2015 The model of masculinity: Youth, gender, and education in Fascist Italy, 1922-1939 Jennifer L. Nehrt James Madison University Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019 Part of the European History Commons, History of Gender Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Nehrt, Jennifer L., "The model of masculinity: Youth, gender, and education in Fascist Italy, 1922-1939" (2015). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-current. 66. https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/66 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College at JMU Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Projects, 2010-current by an authorized administrator of JMU Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Model of Masculinity: Youth, Gender, and Education in Fascist Italy, 1922-1939 _______________________ An Honors Program Project Presented to the Faculty of the Undergraduate College of Arts and Letters James Madison University _______________________ by Jennifer Lynn Nehrt May 2015 Accepted by the faculty of the Department of History, James Madison University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors Program. FACULTY COMMITTEE: HONORS PROGRAM APPROVAL: Project Advisor: Jessica Davis, Ph.D. Philip Frana, Ph.D., Associate Professor, History Interim Director, Honors Program Reader: Emily Westkaemper, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, History Reader: Christian Davis, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, History PUBLIC PRESENTATION This work is accepted for presentation, in part or in full, at Honors Symposium on April 24, 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Mussolini's Ambiguous and Opportunistic Conception of Romanità
    “A Mysterious Revival of Roman Passion”: Mussolini’s Ambiguous and Opportunistic Conception of Romanità Benjamin Barron Senior Honors Thesis in History HIST-409-02 Georgetown University Mentored by Professor Foss May 4, 2009 “A Mysterious Revival of Roman Passion”: Mussolini’s Ambiguous and Opportunistic Conception of Romanità CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgments ii List of Illustrations iii Introduction 1 I. Mussolini and the Power of Words 7 II. The Restrained Side of Mussolini’s Romanità 28 III. The Shift to Imperialism: The Second Italo-Ethiopian War 1935 – 1936 49 IV. Romanità in Mussolini’s New Roman Empire 58 Conclusion 90 Bibliography 95 i PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first came up with the topic for this thesis when I visited Rome for the first time in March of 2008. I was studying abroad for the spring semester in Milan, and my six-month experience in Italy undoubtedly influenced the outcome of this thesis. In Milan, I grew to love everything about Italy – the language, the culture, the food, the people, and the history. During this time, I traveled throughout all of Italian peninsula and, without the support of my parents, this tremendous experience would not have been possible. For that, I thank them sincerely. This thesis would not have been possible without a few others whom I would like to thank. First and foremost, thank you, Professor Astarita, for all the time you put into our Honors Seminar class during the semester. I cannot imagine how hard it must have been to read all of our drafts so intently. Your effort has not gone unnoticed.
    [Show full text]
  • Dagli Inizi Dell'urbanismo Teorico Alla Città Moderna –Visioni Urbanistiche Del Totalitarismo – Ita- Lia, In: Vittorio Ma
    Dagli inizi dell’urbanismo teorico alla città moderna –Visioni urbanistiche del totalitarismo – Ita- lia, in: Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, Katia Frey, Eliana Perotti (a cura di), Anthologie zum Stä- dtebau, vol. II.2., Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2014, pp. 1307-1390. di Pier Giorgio Massaretti Università di Bologna - Italia I “Non si può dire che esistesse un’urbanistica italiana prima dell’avvento del Regime Fascista”. Questo è lo stentoreo e ridondante incipit che apre – connotandone esemplarmente la tragica vocazione autoritaria – l’esile fascicoletto bilingue, italiano & tedesco: “Urbanistica italiana in regime fascista”1. Edito in una tiratu- ra limitata2, plausibilmente nella tarda estate del 19373, il linguaggio disciplinare che ne connota lo sviluppo, ne accredita comunque una competente genesi professionale. Ma anche la contingenza-esigenza politica, che ne ha scatenato l’edizione, risulta quanto mai illuminante. Nonostante l’assenza di attestazioni documentali certe e note, credo sia quanto mai plausibile che questo vo- lumetto-dossier accompagnasse Benito Mussolini nel suo viaggio in Germania, in data 25-29 settembre 1937, al fine di misurare, evocativamente, le potenzialità belliche di un ormai accreditato alleato4 – ma, sicu- ramente, anche per confrontare la propria carismaticità ‘di comando’ con una crescente e concorrenziale ‘vi- sibilità egemonica’ del Führer5. In un regime fascista ormai da tempo predisposto alla guerra, per misurare le proprie capacità di scatenare un coagulante consenso6, ed accreditare così il suo “primato civile nel mondo”7, gli investimenti prodotti non riguardarono solo un trainante impegno nella ricerca e nello sviluppo bellico quanto, invece, in un’eroica o- pera di “immane ricostruzione […] per dare all’Italia più nobile volto, più moderna attrezzatura [urbanistica] di potenziale mondiale”8.
    [Show full text]
  • Consensus for Mussolini? Popular Opinion in the Province of Venice (1922-1943)
    UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND CULTURES Department of History PhD in Modern History Consensus for Mussolini? Popular opinion in the Province of Venice (1922-1943) Supervisor: Prof. Sabine Lee Student: Marco Tiozzo Fasiolo ACADEMIC YEAR 2016-2017 2 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the University of Birmingham is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of my words. 3 Abstract The thesis focuses on the response of Venice province population to the rise of Fascism and to the regime’s attempts to fascistise Italian society.
    [Show full text]
  • Mare Nostrum: Italy and the Mediterranean of Ancient Rome in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
    fascism 8 (2019) 250-274 brill.com/fasc Mare Nostrum: Italy and the Mediterranean of Ancient Rome in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries Samuel Agbamu King’s College London [email protected] Abstract The Mediterranean has occupied a prominent role in the political imaginary of Italian Fascisms, past and present. In the 1920s to the early 1940s, Fascist Italy’s imperial proj- ect used the concept of mare nostrum – our sea – taken from the vocabulary of Roman antiquity, to anchor modern Italian imperialism within the authority of the classical past. In the postwar years, following decolonization in Africa, mare nostrum receded from popular discourse, previous claims to the Mediterranean suppressed. However, in the context of the so-called refugee crisis, Italy resurrected mare nostrum, in the nam- ing of its military-humanitarian operation, a move rejected by the contemporary Ital- ian far right. This article argues that configurations of the Mediterranean of ancient Rome have served to yoke Africa to Italy when articulated into a Fascist, imperial ideol- ogy, as well as to reify the boundaries between Europe and the non-European other, in the xenophobic discourse of the contemporary Italian far right. Keywords Fascism – Italy – Libya – imperialism – romanità – migration – Mediterranean – mare nostrum The Mediterranean is by far the deadliest region for migration in the world, and the central Mediterranean, the area between Libya and Italy, has seen the highest number of migrant casualties when compared with other parts of the © samuel agbamu, 2019 | doi:10.1163/22116257-00802001 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc license at the time of publication.
    [Show full text]
  • A Bundle of Rods: Transmigration of Symbols and Spatial Rhetoric in the Architecture of Modernity1
    A Bundle of Rods: Transmigration of Symbols and Spatial Rhetoric in the Architecture of Modernity1 Daniele Vadalà Introduction During the twenty years of Fascist rule, the diffusion and pervasiveness throughout Italy of the popularized image of the ancient roman symbol of fasces lictori reflects well the sense of a political movement that mainly appealed on the symbolic lure of a spatially based rhetoric. The sequence and connections of these symbolic acts, rather than appearing the outcome of bizarre or extravagant improvisations, were indeed part of a well-orchestrated appeal to a mix of feelings then animating the popular masses of Italy. This strategy could well have been grounded in the current account of the “vittoria mutilata” after the First World War and the distress caused by a profound crisis of the liberal state, whose prestige and authority had been perceptibly weakened in the interwar period by the rising action of labor organizations and communist parties during a period of higher unemployment and economic crisis. This combination of social resentment and uncertainty for the future was an easy target for the emergent regime to emotionally involve Italians through an arsenal of symbols and rites, a well-displayed set of spatially-based dramatizations that in the course of twenty decisive years paved the way to a rising and robust popular consensus. In his seminal work, Le religioni della politica, Emilio Gentile distinguishes two phases in the edification of this “secular cult.”2 The first aimed at consolidating the Fascist authority through the reconsecration of symbols and rites of Italian national unity, among these the celebration of the Statuto Albertino bestowed upon Italy by the Savoia monarchy and the glorification of the First World War.
    [Show full text]
  • Farestoria Gennaio – Giugno 2019
    NUOVA SERIE, ANNO I, N. 1 GENNAIO – GIUGNO 2019 Questo numero mira a indagare il rapporto tra il fascismo e la violenza, nella duplice accezione di violenza fascista e di violenza “nel” fascismo, di violenza agita e di violenza rappresentata. Ereditata, praticata, celebrata, esaltata, teorizzata, osannata, raccontata, mitizzata ed infine negata, la violenza si situa alle origini del fascismo stesso, quando lo squadrismo ne fece in maniera inedita uno strumento e un linguaggio politico dirompente. Lungo tutto l’arco dell’esperienza storica del movimento mussoliniano, da piazza San Sepolcro al crepuscolo della RSI, la violenza è stata un elemento centrale, declinato in forme diverse e rinnovatosi più volte, tanto dell’ideologia che della prassi politica del GENNAIO – GIUGNO 2019 fascismo, sia come movimento politico che come Stato. Quali e quante furono le sue forme specifiche, gli ambiti di azione e le sue DI: CON IL CONTRIBUTO STAMPATO DI RISPARMIO CASSA FONDAZIONE E PESCIA DI PISTOIA declinazioni in epoca fascista? Quali equilibri si realizzarono storicamente fra gli obiettivi politici ricercati attraverso la violenza e la propensione connaturata dei fascisti e del fascismo al suo esercizio? Che bilancio storiografico possiamo trarne oggi? FASCISMO E VIOLENZA FARESTORIAPERIODICO DELL’ISTITUTO STORICO DELLA RESISTENZA ISSN 2612-7164 € 5,00 FARESTORIA E DELL’ETÀ CONTEMPORANEA IN PROVINCIA DI PISTOIA Il presente numero è stato stampato con il contributo della Fondazione CARIPT Copyright © 2019 by ISTITUTO STORICO DELLA RESISTENZA E DELL'ETÀ CONTEMPORANEA IN PROVINCIA DI PISTOIA Sede legale: Piazza S. Leone 1 - 51100 Pistoia Ufficio, archivio e biblioteca: Viale Petrocchi, 159 - Pistoia 51100 Tel e Fax 0573 359399 In copertina: Fascisti in marcia a Monsummano in via Cesare Battisti nei pressi della Casa del Fascio, foto archivio Matteo Grasso proprietà di Luigi Lenzi.
    [Show full text]
  • From Corporatism to the “Foundation of Labour”: Notes on Political Cultures
    Corporativismos: experiências históricas e Dossiê suas representações ao longo do século XX Abstract: Until the mid-1930s, corporatism represented the main vehicle of self-representation that fascism gave to its own resolution of the crisis of the modern state; the investment in corporatism involved not only the attempt to build a new institutional architecture that regulated the relations between the State, the individual and society, but also the legal, economic and political From debate. However, while the importance of corporatism decreased in the last years of the regime, the labour corporatism to issue to which it was genetically linked found new impetus. After Liberation Day, the labour issue was not abandoned along with corporatism, but it was laid down the “foundation in Article 1 of the Constitution. The aim of this paper is to acknowledge the political cultures that in interwar years faced the above-mentioned processes, with particular of labour”: notes reference to the fascist “left”, the reformist socialists and, above all, Catholics of different orientations, in order to on political examine some features of the relationship between the labour issue and statehood across the 20th century. Keywords: Italian fascism; Corporate State; social cultures across Catholicism; Labour; Republican Constitution. Fascist and Do corporativismo até a “fundação do tra- balho”: observações das culturas políticas Republican Italy durante o Fascismo e a República Italiana Resumo: Até meados de 1930, o corporativismo representou o veículo principal de ego-representação Laura Cerasi [*] que o Fascismo apresentou para a sua própria resolução da crise do estado moderno; o investimento em corporativismo não só envolveu a tentativa de [*] Universidade de Veneza — Veneza — Itália.
    [Show full text]
  • 'We Will Never Leave.' the Reale Accademia D'italia and The
    Fascism 2 (2013) 161–182 brill.com/fasc ‘We Will Never Leave.’ The Reale Accademia d’Italia and the Invention of a Fascist Africanism Emanuel Rota University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [email protected] Abstract At the beginning of November 1938 the Reale Accademia d’Italia, the official cultural institution of the Italian Fascist regime, organized a conference on Africa. Mussolini himself had chosen the theme for the conference and major Italian political figures, such as De Vecchi and Balbo, delivered papers, together with French, English and German politicians and scholars. The con- ference, organized in the same year of Hitler’s visit to Italy and of the introduction of the new racial laws, could have offered the cultural justification for a foreign policy alternative to the German turn taken by the regime. Only Mussolini’s last minute decision not to attend trans- formed the Convegno Volta on Africa from a potential alternative foreign policy into a forum where the dissenting voices within the regime voiced their opposition to German style racism. Keywords Italian Fascism; racism; anti-Semitism; Reale Accademia d’Italia; Fascist colonialism; Fascist Africanism The time of politics and the time of cultural production run at different speeds. In authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, where the political power can dic- tate the cultural agenda, the lack of synchronicity that characterizes these two different times can be a source of embarrassment for the political authorities, a space where the sudden turns of politics can reveal themselves as such. For this reason, the cultural events that a regime organizes to systematize its ideol- ogy can be invaluable ‘time machines’ for historians, who can look a these events to challenge the time frame produced by political authorities to legiti- mize their choices.
    [Show full text]