Fascist Virilities
Subtitle: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Social Fantasy in Italy
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: March 1997
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9780816627875
Subjects: Rhetoric; Political Science; Italy; Literature - Classics / Criticism; Sociology; Political aspects; Gender Studies; Cultural studies; Fascism & Nazism; Italian; Literary studies: general; General; Fascism and sex; Masculinity
Description: Fascist Virilities exposes the relation between rhetoric and ideology. Barbara Spackman looks at Italian fascism as a matter of discourse, with "virility" as the master code that articulates and melds its disparate elements. In her analysis, rhetoric binds together the elements of ideology, with "virility" as the key. To reveal how this works, Spackman traces the circulation of "virility" in the discourse of the Italian regime and in the rhetorical practices of Mussolini himself.

She tracks the appearance of virility in two of the sources of fascist rhetoric, Gabriele D'Annunzio and F.T. Marinetti, in the writings of the futurist Valentine de Saint Point and the fascist feminist Teresa Labriola, and in the speeches of Mussolini. A critical and timely contribution to the current reappraisal of fascist ideology, this book will interest anyone concerned with the relations between gender, sexuality, and fascist discourse.