Introduction

Summary

The Introduction’s Prologue “Mussolini as Actor” reconstructs a tendency – alive in both popular and scholarly discourse – to castigate Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as an uncultured buffoon, a histrionic personality more interested in putting on a show than in governing his country. Teasing out the ways in which such an image resides within broader narratives that dismiss fascism itself as spectacle, Gaborik makes the case for a new approach to fascist studies that uses the theatre not as a metaphor but as a key object of investigation. The second part of the introduction, “From Theatre History to Fascist Historiography,” lays out how the study of performance and theatrical institutions in Mussolini's Italy can offer new perspectives not just on the dictator’s cultural proclivities (and appreciation for the performing arts) but on fascism itself: the centrality of arts and culture to its domestic and foreign policy goals, the surprisingly complex relationship of Italy’s intellectuals with il Duce and his regime, and the very totalitarian nature of the fascist State.