Politics, Culture and Society in Fascist Italy

This course will study how the totalitarian fascist program planned to reshape Italians and Italian Culture and the role played by literature, cinema, documentaries. The national program for youth development as well as the magazines aimed at young adults and children will also be examined. The course will present an overview of the “autarkical campaign,” imperialism, and the anti-Semitic campaign, as elements that contributed to construction of the totalitarian fascist model.

Required texts:Emilio Gentile, Il culto del littorio. La sacralizzazione della politica nell’Italia fascista, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009. ISBN - 88-420-6323-1
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, La cultura fascista, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2004.
ISBN - 88-15-09633-7

Mariolina Graziosi, La donna e la storia: identità di genere e identità collettiva
nell'Italia liberale e fascista, Napoli, Liguori, 2000. ISBN - 88-207-3021-9
Vito Zagarrio, Cinema e fascismo. Film, modelli, immaginari, Venezia, Marsilio, 2004.
ISBN - 88-317-8063-8