Fascist aesthetics – more precisely, aesthetics informed by fascist conceptions of nation, society and human essence – is intricately and insidiously bound up with twentieth-century critical thought. This chapter discusses the origins and significance of fascist elements in twentieth-century criticism and aesthetics. It offers an analysis of theories of art expressive of, or simply receptive to, fascist ideology, taking the Belgian national context as a case study in the growth, diffusion and cultural resonance of fascist ideas.

The concept of fascism

The term ‘fascism’ derives its force from an incongruous yet potent mixture of novelty and imprecision. Arriving on the scene in 1919, Mussolini's Fascismo styled itself as a decisive tear in the mottled purple fabric with which liberal, conservative and socialist ideologies failed to cover the expanse of the political; it rapidly attained the status of a viable ideological alternative backed up by a distinct political force whose ‘March on Rome’ in October 1922 made it the first fascist movement ‘autonomously to “seize” power’. ‘Fascism’ has retained its significance as the name for a distinct, radically new political phenomenon, notwithstanding the semantic confusion wrought through its use as a generic term. Paradoxically, the generic term ‘fascism’ still has the performative power of a proper name, despite, on the one hand, its loose usage as a catch-all label for ‘right-wing’ or even just generally ‘unpleasant’ ideological beliefs, and, on the other hand, the numerous exercises in terminological hygiene seeking to distinguish between the dubious privilege of the proper name and the generic features constituting the ‘fascist minimum’.