Series explores Italian fascist and neo-fascist propaganda

World War I dramatized the power and triumphs of propaganda. Both fascism and communism in the postwar years were the centers of intense revolutionary propaganda. After capturing office, both fascists and communists sought to extend their power beyond their own national borders through the use of propaganda. 

The Italian word “propaganda” originally referred to advertisements for consumer products, not political misinformation. But with the rise of fascism, propaganda assumed its modern definition: the marketing of politics. Throughout Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship (1922–1945), advertising shaped autocracy, and vice-versa. We often think of fascist propaganda in two dimensions, picturing posters and newsreels. But because the regime created powerful incentives for private businesses to support state dictates, propaganda included architecture, fashion, and even children’s toys. Today, the far-right deploys new kinds of propaganda, using generative AI and deep fakes, to attract new followers. From fascism to neo-fascism, the most powerful forms of propaganda surround voters with alternate realities. 

Diana Garvin, assistant professor of Italian and Mediterranean Studies, and author of Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women’s Food Work (2022), has organized a speaker series “Propaganda: Understanding How Fascism and Neo-Fascism Make their Pitch.” The series will feature four scholars who have studied Italian fascist and neo-fascist propaganda to understand how ideas are packaged, and how to see through to the truth. 

black and white photo of an older light-skinned man wearing glasses, smiling at the camera
Claudio Fogu
light-skinned woman with long dark hair is standing in front of shrubbery smiling at the camera
Stephanie Malia Hom
man with light skin and dark hair wearing tortoise shell rimmed glasses
Brian Griffith
woman with light skin and short blondish hair looking at the camera
Marla Stone

Claudio Fogu, French and Italian Studies, UC-Santa Barbara, will discuss the implicit premises of the term propaganda when used in historical writing and of its methodological pitfalls, seen through the lens of the research he has conducted on Italian fascism over the past three decades. 

Stephanie Malia Hom, French and Italian Studies, UC-Santa Barbara, will examine the case of Leonarda Cianciulli, Italy’s notorious female serial killer, who, in 1939 and 1940, murdered three women with an axe and dismembered their bodies, after which she dissolved their body parts with lye and rendered them into bars of soap. Cianciulli believed she was being a good fascist mother, a mother who was making a human sacrifice in order to protect her son who had been fighting for Italy in WWII.  

Brian Griffith, History, California State University-Fresno, will discuss his digital archive of neo-fascist propaganda materials he gathered from the walls, billboards, and alleyways of Rome’s various neo-fascist neighborhoods while he was a Fulbright Scholar in Rome in 2018–19.

Marla Stone, History, Occidental College, will discuss how the Nazi and Fascist dictatorships mobilized culture to forge Axis mutuality and shared purpose during WWII. Travelling exhibitions, such as the Exhibition of National Socialism of 1939 and Italy’s First Exhibition of Italian Soldier Artists of 1942 and 1943, were acts of cultural exchange, soft diplomacy, and propaganda.

For details about these talks see the accompanying calendar. Sponsored by the Department of Romance Languages’s Italian Sector, the series is cosponsored by the OHC’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities. For more information, contact dgarvin@uoregon.edu