We proudly present the special issue ‘(Re)Living Greece and Rome: Performances of Classical Antiquity under Fascism’ (Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies, vol. 12, no. 2 (2023)).
Guest editors: Eleftheria Ioannidou (Groningen University, NL); Giovanna Di Martino (UCL, UK); Sara Troiani (Coimbra University, Portugal)
This special issue examines the use of classical antiquity within artistic, cultural, and political events under fascist regimes in the interwar period. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany promoted the production of ancient drama, alongside forms of theater modelled on Greek antiquity, organized grand-scale classical spectacles, and deployed ancient themes and classical-looking symbols and insignia at political gatherings and displays. The analyses presented in this special issue bring into dialogue the scholarship on theater and culture under fascist regimes with the growing literature on the reception of the classics to foreground the significance of performative practices in reconfiguring the classicizing mythologies of fascism. It is the hope of the guest editors that the findings presented here will contribute to the study of performances that strove to re-enact historical pasts beyond the scope of classical reception.
SPECIAL ISSUE
1. Eleftheria Ioannidou / Editorial Introduction: (Re)Living Greece and Rome: Performances of Classical Antiquity under Fascism https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10067
2. Eleftheria Ioannidou / Performative Mo(nu)ments: Re-enacting Classical Antiquity for the Popular Masses in the Theaters of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10068
3. Sara Troiani / The Classical Performances at the Temples of Agrigento and Paestum: From Performances of Ancient Drama to the Re-Enactment of Myths and Rituals in Archeological Sites https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10064
4. Patricia Gaborik / Mussolini’s Cesare: Propaganda, Pedagogy and the Dramatization of History https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10060
5. Giovanna Di Martino / The Living Archive: Archiving and Documenting Classical Performance during Fascism https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10063
6. Fiona Macintosh / Moving Images, Moving Bodies: Greek Dance, Eugenics and Fascism https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10066
7. Pantelis Michelakis / The Antelope and the Lioness: Ancient Greece in the Prologue of Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10059
8. Dimitris Plantzos and Vasileios Balaskas / Reinventing Romanitas: Exchanges of Classical Antiquities as Symbolic Gifts between Italy and Spain (1933-1943) https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10056
9. Han Lamers and Bettina Reitz-Joosse / Spectacular Latin: The Role of the Latin Language in Political Spectacles under Italian Fascism https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10062
10. Jonathan Spellerberg / Enacting the Mythical through Architecture: Nazi Assembly Architecture as Performative Practice https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10054
CONFERENCE REPORT
11. Paul Jackson / Paramilitarism in Fascism and the Radical Right: Sixth Convention of the International Association of Comparative Fascist Studies (COMFAS) https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-bja10065