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Laboratoire italien, n°30/2023

Mussolini in Arte / Arte in Mussolini Perspectives italiennes et internationales

Edited by Patricia Gaborik, Stéphanie Lanfranchi, Élise Varcin

Laboratoire italien



Mussolini in Arte / Arte in Mussolin iItalian and International Perspectives

Following the international colloquium "Mussolini in Arte / Arte in Mussolini. Italian and European perspectives", which took place at the ENS in Lyon on 25 and 26 October 2022, this issue intends to examine, first, the political imprint – at once ideological, lexical, and practical-instrumental – that Mussolini placed on the arts and artists as well as his relationship with the arts, as a politician trained in journalism and literature. Then, reversing the perspective, we consider artistic representations (in literature, performing and figurative arts, radio, etc.) made in the interwar period of which the "duce" was the subject, with a particular focus on the circulation of these images and discourses between Italy and abroad. Taking as their premise the observations already made by the historiography of Italian Fascism regarding the importance of culture and art in the totalitarian project, the introduction, nine essays, and final discussion that comprise this thematic dossier interrogate the ways in which artists and intellectuals used their respective tools to construct (or deconstruct) a political myth, to create the cult of the "duce," and to promote the image of Mussolini and his regime abroad.