Transgressive Rhetoric and Reactionary Politics: Avant-Gardism,Fascism,and the Language of Purification in Italy

Abstract

This article describes the ways in which the transgressive rhetoric of futurism has underpinned the rhetoric of Italian fascism, not only in its early years, as has been more frequently analyzed, but also during the later regime phase (1932–1940). The continued influence of futurism beyond the early “revolutionary” years of fascism has not received equal attention, largely because this period has been identified with reactionary politics and hence is seen as less resonant with futurism's emphasis on the necessity of breaking from traditional political and religious institutions.

It argues that Futurism provided the regime with a vocabulary of regeneration and purification, one that was used both to redefine the ideal fascist man and to imbue the state with a religious dimension. It did so both in a spatial sense, defending a sacred center from a polluted periphery and a temporal one that sought to reclaim a Roman heritage and to project a radical continuity into the future.