Fascist Aesthetics and Society

Some Considerations

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10072678
AutoresGeorge L Mosse (autor de correspondencia)
Año1996
Volumen31
Número2
Páginas245-252
Fecha de publicación1996-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002200949603100202
OpenAlexW2129230943
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas26

Fascist scholarship has become increasingly aware of the role which aesthetics played in the movement's appeal; and that exploring the link between aesthetics, politics and society could open up new dimensions in our understanding of fascism. This aspect of the fascist movement is no longer brushed aside as mere propaganda, an attempt to manipulate the people against their will. All the articles which follow are based upon the realization that in fascism, power had to express itself visually. Instead of emphasizing propaganda and terror, fascist scholarship has been increasingly concerned with aesthetics, and the building of a temporary consensus. The study of fascism is slowly emerging from the period when this movement was almost solely discussed from the point of view of socialist theory, anti-fascism, or parliamentary government measured by the standard of other ideologies to a time when we can take the measure of fascism on its own terms, investigating its self-representation, and attempt to grasp it from the inside out. Only in this way can we understand the true and awesome nature of its appeal. The study of Italian fascism has been neglected outside Italy and perhaps England, and it is to be hoped that this special issue of the Journal of Contemporary History will stimulate more research. Nazi aesthetics have quite often received some attention, but it was Italy which successfully pioneered the use of aesthetic sensibilities for political purposes. All of fascism shared an aesthetic, but knowing more about the Italian case will enable us better to judge the similarities and possible differences which existed within a common fascist aesthetic between nations like Italy and Germany. The aesthetic of fascism should be put into the framework of fascism as a civic religion, as a non-traditional faith which used liturgy and symbols to make its belief come alive. Civic religion is distinguished from traditional religion by its primary concern with life on earth and the nature of the state and nation, making

Aesthetics · Art · Political science · Art History and Market Analysis · Art, Politics, and Modernism · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society