Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T00:53:47.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Analysing Mussolini postcards

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

Enrico Sturani
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the Fascist regime millions of postcards circulated featuring Mussolini in many different guises and forms. This article reflects on their production, distribution and consumption and considers the extent to which they can be seen as part of the propaganda of a totalitarian regime. It also explores the meanings of the imagery of a selection of postcards. It argues that Mussolini postcards, despite their vast numbers, amounted in fact to only a small proportion of those circulating under the regime. Moreover, many of them were produced by private publishers for profit rather that Fascist organisations or the state. Therefore they cannot simply be considered as a manifestation of totalitarianism and must rather be conceived in large part as an effect of the impact of Mussolini on popular culture.

Keywords

MussoliniFascismpropagandapostcards
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 18 , Issue 2: Special Issue: The Cult of Mussolini in Twentieth-Century Italy Guest Editors: Christopher Duggan, Stephen Gundle and Giuliana Pieri , May 2013 , pp. 141 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Biondi, D. 1973. La fabbrica del duce. Florence: Vallecchi.Google Scholar
Bosworth, R.J.B. 2009. “Dictators Strong or Weak? The Model of Benito Mussolini.” In The Oxford Handbook of Fascism, edited by Bosworth, , Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Campi, A. 2007. L'ombra lunga di Napoleone: da Mussolini a Berlusconi. Venice: Marsilio.Google Scholar
Cannistraro, P.V. 1975. La fabbrica del consenso: fascismo e mass media. Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Corner, P. 2009. “Fascist Italy in the 1930s: Popular Opinion in the Provinces.” In Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes, edited by Corner, , 141–42. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
De Luna, G., D'Autilia, G. and Criscenti, L. (eds). 2005. L'Italia del Novecento: le fotografie e la storia – il potere in Italia da Giolitti a Mussolini (1900–1945). Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Dondi, M. 1996. “Piazzale Loreto.” In I luoghi della memoria: simboli e miti dell'Italia unita, edited by Isnenghi, M., 487–99. Rome-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Franzinelli, M., and Marino, E.V. 2003. Il duce proibito: le fotografie di Mussolini che gli italiani non hanno mai visto. Milan: Mondadori.Google Scholar
Gentile, E. 2002. Fascismo: storia e interpretazione. Rome-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Giuliani, S. 1936. “Una chiara sentenza: la riproduzione della fotografia del Duce ‘non costituisce reato’,” Il Popolo d'Italia, 3 December, 1.Google Scholar
Gundle, S. 2008. “Un Martini per il Duce: l'immaginario del consumismo nell'Italia degli anni Venti e Trenta.” In L'arte della pubblicità: il manifesto italiano e le avanguardie, edited by Villari, A., 38–62. Milan: Silvana.Google Scholar
Gundle, S. 2010. “Satire and the Destruction of the Cult of the Duce.” In Against Mussolini: Art and the Fall of a Dictator, edited by R. Cremoncini, and others, 15–35. London: Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art.Google Scholar
Luzzatto, S. 1998. Il corpo del duce: un cadavere tra immaginazione, storia e memoria. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Lyttelton, A. 1973. The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Massoni, G. 1942. Duce e popolo. Rome: Il Rubicone.Google Scholar
Morin, E. 1972. Les stars. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Stone, M. S. 1998. The Patron State: Culture and Politics in Fascist Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 1995. Otto milioni di cartoline per il duce. Turin: Centro Scientifico Editore.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 2003. Le cartoline del duce. Turin: Edizioni del Capricorno.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 2004. Memorie di un cartolinaio: aneddoti divertenti e surreali dui una vita da collezionista. Rome: Coniglio.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 2008. “Il fascismo in cartolina.” In Modernità totalitaria: il fascismo italiano, edited by Gentile, E., 112–128. Rome–Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 2010. CARToline: L'arte alla prova della cartolina. Manduria: Barbieri.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 2011. La cartolina nell'arte: fatta a pezzi, stravolta, esaltata. Manduria: Barbieri.Google Scholar
Sturani, E. 2011a. “‘Un saluto da Tripoli italiana’: le cartoline della Guerra di Libia, 1911–1912.” In Libia: una guerra coloniale italiana, edited by Bassi, G., Labanca, N., and Sturani, E., 62–165. Rovereto: Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra.Google Scholar