Colloquium: Should We Consider Fascism as an Historically Distinct ‘Emotional Regime’?

  • Datum: 30.11.2021
  • Uhrzeit: 17:00
  • Ort: online
  • Gastgeber: Forschungsbereich Geschichte der Gefühle

Though in my recent book, The Perfect Fascist (2020), I did not explicitly refer to the history of emotions, at many points I delved into related t​hemes such as Eros and Thanatos, love and marriage, melodrama, political mendacity, seduction, and morality. Becoming better acquainted with this literature, and in response to widespread perplexity as to whether populist nationalist politics has a distinct emotional valence, I am eager to submit the question, should we consider Fascism as a historically distinct “emotional regime?” Here I address that question empirically and conceptually. First, I consider briefly how the historical, but especially psychoanalytic and philosophical literature has treated the question of fascism and emotions (meaning emotional and psychic life, as well as organized enthusiasm). Second, I examine some episodes from the rise of fascism in Italy, 1921-1924, focusing on Mussolini’s strategic organization of public emotions in the face of political competitors. And third, from appraising the many factors that need to be calculated to consider the effectiveness of his strategic calculi (and these over time) on what basis would we be speaking of fascism as a particular emotional regime?

Victoria de Grazia is currently Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia University. She was educated at Smith College, University of Florence, and Columbia University where she received her Ph.D. in history with distinction in 1976. Her research interests lie in contemporary history, with longstanding commitments to studying western Europe and Italy from a gendered perspective and to developing a global perspective on commercial revolutions. In addition to The Perfect Fascist: A History of Love, Morality, and Power (2020), her publications include Soft Power Internationalism: Global Cultural Battles in the 21st Century, with Burcu Baykurt (2021) Irresistible Empire: America's Advance Through Twentieth Century Europe (2005); The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective (ed., 1996); How Fascism Ruled Women: Italy, 1922-1945 (1992); and The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy (1981). She has been the recipient of German Marshall Fund, Guggenheim, and American Academy in Rome fellowships, and she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.


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Meeting number: 2743 794 2260
Meeting password: J52hR2RYnBX

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