Abstract

Fascist Politics and Literary Culture is a study of the avant-grade movements which flourished in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century and played an important role in the formation of a recognisably Fascist ideology. Many modernist writers and artists became committed supporters ofMussolini. The book examines the works of one writer, Vincenzo Cardarelli (1884-1959), who was first a member of the Florentine avant-garde and subsequently an important proponent of Fascist culture. The initial section of the book examines the anti-positivism, nationalism, and hostility towardsparliamentary democracy which formed the basis of modernist culture in Florence in the years before the First World War. It also examines the creative writing of those authors who were most committed to radical and violent change. The book then charts the rise of Fascism in the immediate aftermathof the First World War and examines how Cardarelli and others in the literary world called for a 'return to order'. The book then examines the work which Cardarelli and a number of his contemporaries produced during the twenty years of Mussolini's rule. It shows how these works fostered thenationalistic myths of fascism, how they created a vision of the past and of the Italian people.