Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:50:43.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Il nostro Duce’: Mussolini's visit to Trieste in 1938 and the workings of the cult of the Duce1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

Paul Baxa
Paul Baxa*
Affiliation:
Ave Maria University, Florida, USA
*
∗Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

On September 18, 1938, Benito Mussolini disembarked in the port city of Trieste to begin a seven-day visit of the Tre Venezie. The tour was in keeping with Mussolini's policy of andare verso il popolo which involved periodic visits to Italy's regions. It was also an opportunity to impose the cult of the Duce on a frontier region which had, since the 1920s, been the site of harsh anti-Slav policies designed to Italianize the Venezia-Giulia region. This article examines the workings of the cult in Trieste where the regime was anxious to demonstrate that it was present in a city that had felt neglected by Rome. Often viewed as a top-down enterprise, this article will explore how the cult of the Duce relied significantly on local dynamics and spaces.

Keywords

cult of the DuceMussoliniregionalismTriesteVenezia Giulia
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. 117 - 128
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

Alessi, R. 1954. Trieste Viva: fatti, uomini, pensieri. Rome: Gherardo Casini Editore.Google Scholar
Apih, E. 1988. Trieste. Rome–Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Ara, A., and Magris, C. 1982. Trieste: un'identità di frontiera. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Bandelli, G. 1991. “Per una storia del mito di Roma al confine orientale: archeologia e urbanistica nella Trieste del Ventennio.” In Il Teatro Romano di Trieste. Monumento, storia, funzione, edited by Verzar-Bass, Monika, 252–262. Rome: Istituto Svizzero di Roma.Google Scholar
Berezin, M. 1997. Making the Fascist Self: The Political Culture of Interwar Italy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bossi, L., ed. 1999. Trieste 1900–1999. Vol. 4. Trieste: Publisport.Google Scholar
Bosworth, R. J. B. 2006. Mussolini's Italy: Life under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915–1945. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Brown, J. 2009. Glamour in Six Dimensions: Modernism and the Radiance of Form. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Cattaruzza, M. 2007. L'Italia e il Confine Orientale: 1866–2006. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Ciano, G. 1980. Diario 1937–1943. Milan: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Coulter Russell, C. 1975. “Italo Svevo's Trieste.” Italica 52(1):3–36.Google Scholar
Eksteins, M. 2012. Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age. Toronto: Knopf.Google Scholar
Falasca-Zamponi, S. 1997. Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in Mussolini's Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Forgacs, D., and Gundle, S. 2007. Mass Culture and Italian Society from Fascism to the Cold War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Gentile, E. 1995. Il culto del littorio: la sacralizzazioe della politica nell'Italia fascista. Rome–Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Gherardi Bon, S. 1972. La Persecuzione Antiebraica a Trieste (1938–1945). Udine: Del Bianco.Google Scholar
Guagnini, E. 1988. “La Cultura: una fisionomia difficile.” In Trieste, edited by Apih, E., 271–383. Rome–Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Hametz, M. 2012. In the Name of Italy: Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fascist Court. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Hametz, M. 2005. Making Trieste Italian 1918–1954. Rochester, NY: Royal Historical Society/The Boydell Press.Google Scholar
Hametz, M. E. 2007. “Zionism, Emigration, and Antisemitism in Trieste: Central Europe's ‘Gateway to Zion.’ 1896–1943.” Jewish Social Studies 13(3, Spring/Summer (New Series)):103–134.Google Scholar
Isnenghi, M. 1994. L'Italia in piazza: i luoghi della vita pubblica dal 1848 ai nostri giorni. Rome-Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Kirk, T. 2005. The Architecture of Modern Italy, Vol. 1: The Challenge of Tradition, 1750–1900. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.Google Scholar
Lasansky, D. M. 2004. The Renaissance Perfected: Architecture, Spectacle, and Tourism in Fascist Italy. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Laura, E. G. 2000. Le stagioni dell'aquila: storia dell'Istituto Luce. Rome: Ente dello Spettacolo.Google Scholar
Luzzatto, S. 2005. The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini's Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Morris, J. 2001. Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.Google Scholar
Mussolini, B. 1951–1962. “Discorso di Trieste.” Vol. 29, In Opera Omnia, edited by Susmel, E., and Susmel, D. 144–147. Florence: La Fenice.Google Scholar
Nicoloso, P. 2003. “Settembre 1938: Mussolini nella Venezia Giulia. Indirizzi totalitari e architetture per il Fascismo.” In Torviscosa: Esemplarita di un Progetto, edited by Biasin, E., Canci, R. and Perulli, S., 13–26. Udine: Editrice Universitaria Udinese.Google Scholar
Pizzi, K. 2001. A City in Search of an Author: The Literary Identity of Trieste. London: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Protti, R. 1936. “Il Colle Capitolino di Trieste.” Le Vie d'Italia 42 (August):538–544.Google Scholar
Ruaro Loseri, L. 1985. Guida di Trieste: La citta nella storia nella cultura e nell'arte. Trieste: Edizioni LINT.Google Scholar
Sarfatti, M. 2005. “Characteristics and Objectives of the Anti-Jewish Racial Laws in Fascist Italy, 1938–1943.” In Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945, edited by Zimmerman, J. D., 71–80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Seri, A. 1982. Trieste Anni Trenta. Trieste: Edizioni ‘Italo Svevo’.Google Scholar
Sfrecola, A. 1999. “Il tramonto della citta cosmopolita.” Vol. 2, In Trieste 1900–1999, edited by Bossi, Licio. 154–155. Trieste: Publisport.Google Scholar
Sluga, G. 2001. The Problem of Trieste and the Italo–Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Willson, P. 2002. Peasant Women and Politics in Fascist Italy: The Massaie Rurali. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zocconi, M. 1987. Edifici notevoli della regione Friuli Venezia Giulia: Trieste – La citta nuova e il borgo teresiano. Trieste: Universita degli Studi di Trieste.Google Scholar