{"title":"Mussolini’s Cesare: Propaganda, Pedagogy and the Dramatization of History","authors":"Patricia Gaborik","doi":"10.1163/22116257-bja10060","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article discusses the collaboration between Benito Mussolini and Giovacchino Forzano in the writing of three historical dramas, focusing on the third text of their collaboration, <em>Cesare</em>, which dates to 1939. Placing this partnership within the context of Fascism’s broader theatrical programming, the essay discusses the play as a model of Fascist theater, for its imparting of Fascist ideological tenets, propagandistic messages, and pedagogical aims. It focuses in particular on the ways in which the play uses the analogy between ancient Rome and Fascist Italy, and between Julius Caesar and Mussolini, embodying fascism’s poetics of history, contributing to the anthropological revolution, and overall demonstrating the ‘new fascist man’ through the character of Caesar/Mussolini.</p>","PeriodicalId":42586,"journal":{"name":"Fascism","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Fascism","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10060","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article discusses the collaboration between Benito Mussolini and Giovacchino Forzano in the writing of three historical dramas, focusing on the third text of their collaboration, Cesare, which dates to 1939. Placing this partnership within the context of Fascism’s broader theatrical programming, the essay discusses the play as a model of Fascist theater, for its imparting of Fascist ideological tenets, propagandistic messages, and pedagogical aims. It focuses in particular on the ways in which the play uses the analogy between ancient Rome and Fascist Italy, and between Julius Caesar and Mussolini, embodying fascism’s poetics of history, contributing to the anthropological revolution, and overall demonstrating the ‘new fascist man’ through the character of Caesar/Mussolini.
期刊介绍:
Fascism publishes peer-reviewed (double blind) articles in English, mainly but not exclusively by both seasoned researchers and postgraduates exploring the phenomenon of fascism in a comparative context and focusing on such topics as the uniqueness and generic aspects of fascism, patterns in the causal aspects/genesis of various fascisms in political, economic, social, historical, and psychological factors, their expression in art, culture, ritual and propaganda, elements of continuity between interwar and postwar fascisms, their relationship to national and cultural crisis, revolution, modernity/modernism, political religion, totalitarianism, capitalism, communism, extremism, charismatic dictatorship, patriarchy, terrorism, fundamentalism, and other phenomena related to the rise of political and social extremism.