The Fascist Empire’s time and eschatology in the eastern Adriatic, a shifting border

Dalmazzo, Pietro

The Fascist Empire’s time and eschatology in the eastern Adriatic, a shifting border

Dalmazzo, Pietro

Authors

Pietro Dalmazzo pietro.dalmazzo@durham.ac.uk
Combined Role

Abstract

In the aftermath of the treaties of Versailles (1919) and Rapallo (1920), the relationship between Italy and the eastern Adriatic remained hinged on concepts and factors in continuity with the previous years. Despite the international acknowledgements of the Italian dominion over Istria, Trieste and Zadar, the narrative of ‘Vittoria Mutilata’ remained predominant on an institutional level. To maintain alive a feeling of disappointment related to liberal Italy’s foreign policy was crucial to the Fascist regime to propose a renovation of Italian society; the tumultuous situation of the eastern Adriatic in the early 1920s fitted the purpose. The irredentists’ positions entered entirely into the claims of Mussolini, the overthrow of the existing state of affairs in the Adriatic remained a consistent presence in the rhetoric of the regime. Although the Italian expansionist desire toward eastern Adriatic could be considered a long-term phenomenon, direct control of the area was achieved only in the late ‘30s. This paper intends to look at how the Italian literature of the early fascist period merged into the representation of the eastern Adriatic the instances of renovation of the regime and the imperialist desire towards the area. This analysis aims to provide some insights into the qualitative characterization of the fascist imperialist discourse towards the Adriatic, to gain an understanding of how the Italian literary representations of the area were disseminated by claims, images and narrations capable of supporting the fascist geopolitical project. The paper will look at four authors: Mario Dei Gaslini, Giovanni Comisso, Indro Montanelli and Arturo Marpicati who published about the eastern Adriatic area before the Italian occupation, focusing firstly on the methodological approach of the research, secondly on the proper analysis of their publications and eventually on the further step to approach in the research in this topic.