{"id":384,"date":"2018-01-15T19:10:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T19:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/?p=384"},"modified":"2024-10-02T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T08:43:10","slug":"anger-as-misshapen-fear-fascism-and-the-emotional-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/2018\/01\/15\/anger-as-misshapen-fear-fascism-and-the-emotional-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger as misshapen fear: fascism and the emotional body"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>What follows is the text of the paper I gave the 20 June 2017 at the International Conference \u00abFears and\u00a0Angers. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives\u00bb, Queen Mary University, 19-20 June 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Amarcord, Fascist Rally\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KsTqJjDG2Xo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Probably Federico Fellini\u2019s Oscar-winning movie, <em>Amarcord<\/em>, released in 1973, perfectly defines what was supposed to be the, as William Reddy would say, <strong>\u00abemotional regime\u00bb of fascism<\/strong>. Enthusiasm, faith, happiness, and veneration for the Chief were the dominant public feelings endorsed by fascism. But, despite the public ceremonies being widely, and often sincerely, officiated by Italian people, fascism largely derived consensus from violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_414\" style=\"width: 272px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-414\" class=\"wp-image-414 \" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Squadrista-182x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"262\" height=\"422\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-414\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giacomo Manz\u00f9, Black Brigadist, 1943<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more-->The annihilation of life produced by fascism is described by <strong>Carlo Emilio Gadda<\/strong> in the first lines of his <em>Eros e Priapo<\/em>. That is the anti-fascist satire, written between 1944 and 1945, through which I would like to address the struggle of fear and anger in this crucial period of Italian history. Gadda writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The bribery association that for over twenty years could steal and humiliate and rape Italy, and finally throw it in the very ruin and abyss in which God himself is afraid to look, it\u00a0depicted as political activity the disruption and erasure of life. [&#8230;] Collective awareness was concealed in a hidden, invisible lagoon of history, beyond hate and dullness, and belonged to the refugees, the persecuted, the prisoners, the humiliated, the children of deportees and executed to death.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Gadda gives voice to the unspoken emotional suffering of at least a section of the population. He seems to individuate an <strong>\u00abemotional refuge\u00bb <\/strong>(Reddy again), where the assumption of the existence of fear is already an act of objection. Fear creates a link among the persecuted; it makes recognisable and nameable the discomfort about the material and emotional constraints imposed by fascism. Fear establishes bonds for the formation of, we might say adapting Barbara Rosenwein\u2019s concept, <strong>\u00abemotional communities\u00bb <\/strong>that organise a\u00a0first, spontaneous nucleus of resistance against fascism, and often express themselves through literature and art.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_390\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-390\" class=\"wp-image-390\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_a_Maccari_nemicinterno.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_a_Maccari_nemicinterno.jpg 1605w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_a_Maccari_nemicinterno-289x300.jpg 289w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_a_Maccari_nemicinterno-768x797.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_a_Maccari_nemicinterno-987x1024.jpg 987w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_a_Maccari_nemicinterno-32x32.jpg 32w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-390\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mino Maccari, Don\u2019t Look Outside for What is Inside, 1934<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_389\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-389\" class=\" wp-image-389\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/2_a_Guttuso_fucilazione.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"311\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Renato Guttuso, Countryside Execution, 1938-1939<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Though, fear is seldom alone within the practices of these emotional communities; it is quite often conjoint with anger, such as in a number of <strong>caricatures<\/strong> that circulated during fascism. The style of caricature addresses aggressively the scary and violent aspects of fascism, angrily uncovering them.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_391\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-391\" class=\" wp-image-391\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_b_Fascismo_teschi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"318\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-391\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chancel, The Empire and the Emperor, \u00abBecco Giallo\u00bb, n. 6<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_392\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-392\" class=\"wp-image-392\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_c_Oliodiricino-276x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_c_Oliodiricino-276x300.jpg 276w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_c_Oliodiricino-768x835.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_c_Oliodiricino.jpg 873w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chancel, Fascism Penetrated in People\u2019s Soul, \u00abBecco Giallo\u00bb, n. 58<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I argue that the <strong>overturning of fear into anger<\/strong> is the very psychological move that made the birth of oppositional communities possible.<br \/>\nFear and anger, distress and aggression are entangled within Gadda\u2019s\u00a0<em>Eros e Priapo<\/em>. Anger is the device that enables fear to become productive, changing the passivity of fear into an invective. Anger achieves consistency in Gadda\u2019s hard-hitting style, in the <strong>violent, emphatic, superlative language<\/strong> of <em>Eors e Priapo<\/em>, which is written, Gadda himself says, with \u00abclear-headed rage\u00bb. Anger becomes visible in Gadda\u2019s writing based on deformation, exaggeration, hyperbolic descriptions of physical and behavioural traits.<br \/>\nGadda creates a massive caricature of fascist Italy, applying deformation on two main levels. First, he addresses the <strong>body of Mussolini<\/strong>, who is represented as bestial and lustful. Second, he addresses the <strong>social body<\/strong>, whose deformed behaviour and abnormal physiology reveal the psychological distortions implied in fascism.<\/p>\n<p>Mussolini established a strong emotional bond with people, mainly through his renowned <strong>public speeches<\/strong>. In his performances, he created the illusion of a personal, intimate relationship between the leader and each Italian citizen. Mussolini, Gadda says, \u00abmagnifies the Ego through the voice. The voice is a powerful sexual enticement. It turns the political speech into a sensual advance for dummies\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-393 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini2-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini2.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Gadda\u2019s first caricature of the dictator encompasses both his verbal and gestural rhetoric. The aggressive and emphatic words Mussolini pronounces, the theatrical exaggeration of his gestures, inherently <strong>misshapes his body and posture<\/strong>. The \u00abformulas and utterances\u00bb are associated with \u00abgrimaces and digital conjunctions\u00bb. The violent words produce \u00abthe grunts, the Priapus-like jumps, the wide-opened eyes, the arrogant raising of the face\u00bb, and the exhibition of \u00abthe dictator-shaped chin, the sticking out, prolapsed, big belted belly\u00bb, and the \u00abhuge, clumsy, unwanted bottom\u00bb.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_396\" style=\"width: 278px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-396\" class=\"wp-image-396 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_d_Surrealista_Antropoide-1-268x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"268\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_d_Surrealista_Antropoide-1-268x300.jpg 268w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_d_Surrealista_Antropoide-1-768x859.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/3_d_Surrealista_Antropoide-1.jpg 893w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-396\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Akar, Surrealist Mussolini<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In his speeches, Mussolini is performing the feelings that build fascist emotional regime. Gadda\u2019s text, I argue, mirrors this performance, and displays a <strong>counter-performance<\/strong>, that is, a violent monologue in which the refrains and stereotypes of Mussolini\u2019s language are mocked. In <em>Eros e Priapo <\/em>Gadda creates a character &#8211; the one who speaks in the text at the first person &#8211; who, as Mussolini, vigorously addresses the Italian people. The speaker himself is a caricature of Mussolini, and this caricature is then refracted across the text: Mussolini is continuously described or evoked through <strong>distorted, hyperbolic, degrading images<\/strong>. He has the \u00abhead of donkey and tail of pig\u00bb, he acts with \u00abthe ease of an orangutan\u00bb, showing \u00abthe two big bananas bunches of the two hands, the ten fat fingers hanging down on his hips, and held by two short little arms\u00bb.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_397\" style=\"width: 294px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-397\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-397\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/4_b_Lupa-284x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/4_b_Lupa-284x300.jpg 284w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/4_b_Lupa-768x810.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/4_b_Lupa-970x1024.jpg 970w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/4_b_Lupa.jpg 1123w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-397\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Abel Faivre, Capitol Hill She-Wolf, \u00abCodino Rosso\u00bb, 1924<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The image of Mussolini was spread obsessively through all kind of media. Particularly, the reproduction of his portrait strengthened the emotional and intimate relationship with citizens.<br \/>\nWomen, Gadda states, could fall in love, and even make love, with <strong>Mussolini\u2019s portrait<\/strong>. And Gadda overwrites this ubiquitous portrait.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-398 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini_grano-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini_grano-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini_grano-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini_grano-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini_grano-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/mussolini_grano.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It takes a rather small stylistic increase to make a caricature out of Mussolini\u2019s image as a manly, energetic reaping farmer:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He was there, big-headed, with a farmer hat on the provolone-like head, there, there, over the tractor, with the naked chest out, exhibiting what he could from the waist up: a couple of scant hair around the nipples: two bad, mediocre nipples, that none would have licked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The figure of Mussolini, his body, his gestures and above all his head, were the favourite target of caricaturists.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_399\" style=\"width: 259px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-399\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-399\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Lui-249x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Lui-249x300.png 249w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Lui.png 699w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 249px) 100vw, 249px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rata Langa (Gabriele Galantara), HIM, \u00abL\u2019Asino\u00bb, 21, 1924<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gadda explicitly refers to the <strong>humoristic journals<\/strong> that \u00abdepicted in caricature the bad face and bad nose and bad mouth, and I won\u2019t say the bad hair, that he hadn\u2019t\u00bb. References to this production confirm both the visual models of Gadda\u2019s style, and the belonging of his text to the emotional communities that were elaborating fear through anger.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_401\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-401\" class=\"wp-image-401 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/6_Squadristi-1-1024x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/6_Squadristi-1-1024x401.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/6_Squadristi-1-300x117.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/6_Squadristi-1-768x300.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/6_Squadristi-1-500x196.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/6_Squadristi-1.jpg 1659w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Girus, All Fascists are Good-Looking, \u00abIl Monocolo\u00bb<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gadda encompasses the <strong>entire Italian society<\/strong> in his greed for deformation. Any single fascist becomes a reproduction, and an extension, of Mussolini\u2019s caricature:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif\">I mention the imitations and useless repetitions of the Priapus-like aggression and frog-like exhibition, and the dictating bray and posture of the Supreme Donkey. Each of them whished, together with the Priapus-like mouth, the squared jaws of the Rotten Maccherone.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In Gadda\u2019s view, the figure of Mussolini is the fulcrum of fascist power also because his body is the object of desire for the <strong>mesmerised body of society<\/strong>. The Italian population was excited by an erotic flow, an emotional tension crossing private and public life. Mussolini was both the source and the target of this tension: all women wanted to be possessed by him; all men wanted to possess his erotic power. As composed of inebriated bacchantes, <strong>the mass invokes the leader<\/strong>, who promises his transfigured body: \u00abthe mouth as a labial sucker, resembling a sudden penis, and the protruding belly, and the silver knife, that is, phallus moving towards them and almost offering itself to them\u00bb.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_402\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-402\" class=\"size-large wp-image-402\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Dux_nudo-1024x781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"445\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Dux_nudo-1024x781.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Dux_nudo-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Dux_nudo-768x586.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Dux_nudo-393x300.jpg 393w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Dux_nudo.jpg 1769w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-402\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mino Maccari, Dux, 1943<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fascism is condensed by Gadda in an <strong>obscene satirical image<\/strong>: Mussolini presented himself as a giant phallus, to be received by the mind-vaginas of the population. Hence, Eros is the hidden, deeply emotional explanation of fascism. Coherently, Gadda blames Italian women to have been the cornerstone of the regime\u2019s solidity. This is the point where Gadda\u2019s anger reaches its peak, and becomes hardly manageable, above all because it is translated into a violent, often <strong>unbearable misogyny<\/strong>. According to Gadda, fascism offers to women the ideal model of virility they are looking for: a violent, arrogant, oppressive man, never tempted by doubts or critical hesitations. Women are satirised in their hysterical participation in public manifestations, in their deep emotional and physical attachment to Mussolini\u2019s figure.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0Down in the courtyard here a bunch of duck-like Theresas: they started to wiggle around their hips and bottoms, all around and around with their beaks wide open and the tongues and throats singing the foolish feminine song of human daze and stupidity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Confirming the ancient, stereotypical association between women and uncontrolled passions, Gadda argues that <strong>women brought emotions within the public space<\/strong>, thus endorsing the irrationality of fascism. Women\u2019s behaviour, triggered by desire, contributed to the defeat of reason, legitimated the violence entailed in the triumph of Eros, and enabled the reproduction of fascist emotional regime.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_403\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-403\" class=\"wp-image-403 \" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/8_Donne_fasciste-728x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"419\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-403\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jouenne, Fascist Women, \u00abLe Rire\u00bb<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Considering the almost obsessive stress Gadda puts on <strong>sex and desire<\/strong>, we could argue that the emotion leading to the overwhelming anger expressed in female portraits is not just fear of the explicit violence of fascism. Fear has a more complex layering in <em>Eros e Priapo<\/em>. Gadda\u2019s misogyny can be interpreted as the fear of and anger against the <strong>sexualisation of public life<\/strong>. Gadda is scared by the strict normative celebration of heterosexuality performed by fascist culture. The model of masculinity imposed by the regime corners his intellectual and likely sexual difference. In fact, in representing himself as the hero of Logos against Eros, Gadda presumably aims at covertly rejecting the apparently <strong>unquestionable heterosexual masculinity<\/strong>. In this attempt, he strikes back representing the sexual regime of fascism as perverse, as based on unrestrained <em>lubido<\/em>, which results in an entire society passively succumbing under the manly control of the Chief. The fear for the political use of Eros is overturned into anger against everyone who made themselves a passive instrument of the dominant normativity.<\/p>\n<p>Denouncing the passivity of society, represented as female, Gadda is, maybe unwillingly, denouncing also <strong>his own passivity<\/strong>, the fact that<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>he was unable to state his political, and sexual, diversity. Of course, this denouncement is still sexist, and largely reproduces the <em>phallogocentric<\/em> discourse of fascism.<\/p>\n<p>The emotionally overloaded discourse of Gadda is still affected by the pressure of the dominant emotional regime, which Gadda is trying to deconstruct through anger. Gadda remains trapped in this action of deconstruction because he is <strong>existentially involved<\/strong> in the experiences he is trying to describe and criticise.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_404\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-404\" class=\" wp-image-404\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/9_Selvaggio_idee_scheletro.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"369\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/9_Selvaggio_idee_scheletro.jpg 819w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/9_Selvaggio_idee_scheletro-243x300.jpg 243w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/9_Selvaggio_idee_scheletro-768x948.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-404\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maccari, A Man and his Ideas, \u00abIl Selvaggio\u00bb, 56, 15 May 1937<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This is why <strong>deformation falls also upon him<\/strong>: his critical spirit, he says, his reluctance to enthusiasm and consensus, attracted the hostility of patriotic women. Gossiping about him, these patriotic women depict him as a \u00abvile and gross creature, mentally impaired vase of stupidity, psychic abnormal, owl generated by the Night, six-fingered and four-horned monster with a flat beak\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Unquestionably, this is a <strong>self-caricature<\/strong>. Of course, in exhibiting the hostility coming from patriotic women, Gadda is bold to try and detach himself from the fascist community. Gadda, who for years has stayed quite ambiguously in the \u00abgrey zone\u00bb of non-supporters and non-opponents, is trying to <strong>gain credit as anti-fascist<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Still, such a violently misshapen portrait cannot be isolated from the system of meanings created by the gallery of caricatures addressing Mussolini and his Italy. Deforming his own figure, Gadda is revealing his involvement in the <strong>emotional knot<\/strong> he is trying to unravel. Despite his claim of writing a critical, clear-minded analysis of fascism, Gadda describes his report as a \u00abpsychological testimony directly impressed in my soul\u00bb.<br \/>\nThe <strong>misshapen profile of the writer<\/strong> emerging from his writing both reveals his fear and applies to himself the anger through which fear is being elaborated.<\/p>\n<p>The unbearable harshness and emotional ambiguity of Gadda\u2019s caricatures are connected to his intention to write, as he says, a <strong>historiography of the unspoken<\/strong>, that addresses not the visible facts of official history, but the invisible, deep events concerning the mind and body. Gadda claims he wants to write about \u00abthe obscure ways and processes of existence related to the zone of the unconscious, those animal and almost bestial drives which Plato collocated in the abdominal pack, that is <strong>the vase of the entrails<\/strong>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_406\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406\" class=\"size-large wp-image-406\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/10_Maccari_borghese-1024x776.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/10_Maccari_borghese-1024x776.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/10_Maccari_borghese-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/10_Maccari_borghese-768x582.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/10_Maccari_borghese-396x300.jpg 396w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/10_Maccari_borghese.jpg 1599w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-406\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maccari, The Bourgeois, \u00abIl Selvaggio\u00bb, 10, 31 December 1935<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This approach would allow him to give an \u00ab<strong>overall image of life<\/strong>, not an arbitrary abstraction of a few themes from the general biological context\u00bb. The exploration of the biological roots of historical events implies facing the dirty and irrational movements of the human mind: \u00abmistakes, madness, moral and intellectual evil, <strong>excitement and frantic agitation<\/strong>, public and private unseemliness\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>The intention to challenge the dark side of reality partly explains the often intolerable violence of the text. Deformation, exaggeration, hyperbole, insistence on the most degrading bodily functions, must be considered the <strong>stylistic tools<\/strong> that give access to the unconscious, and to a reliable history of intimacy.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, <strong>deformation of lines and shapes<\/strong> is traditionally associated with the expression of emotions. \u00abExcitement and frantic agitation\u00bb, Gadda&#8217;s words, was exactly what <strong>Aby Warburg<\/strong> was looking for in his research about what he called <em>pathosformeln<\/em>, that is, artistic forms conveying extreme feelings and passions. Art history is crossed by recurring images in which artists captured movements that reveal states of mind and inner feelings.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_407\" style=\"width: 332px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-407\" class=\"wp-image-407 \" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/laocoon-253x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"322\" height=\"380\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-407\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laoco\u00f6n and His Sons, Vatican Museums<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Looking at these kinds of images, Warburg recognised hints of deep, radical, archaic <strong>emotional experiences<\/strong>. Interpreting Warburg\u2019s work, the French art historian Georges Didi-Huberman argued that the moving shapes and figures in art don\u2019t just <em>represent <\/em>emotions, they <em>embody<\/em> emotions, contain a <strong>psychic energy<\/strong> that is re-enacted when these figures reappear. It is like an emotional flow crossing history and making itself visible through the deformation of lines. \u00ab<strong>Curve is too emotional<\/strong>\u00bb, stated Mondrian, thus endorsing the idea that misshapen, deformed figures can be used to understand emotional historical contexts. <strong>Caricature<\/strong>, in particular, both verbal and visual, can reveal the conflicts agitating the emotional regimes, can track the existence of emotional refuges, and visualise the suffering of minority emotional communities.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_408\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-408\" class=\"size-large wp-image-408\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Maccari_collettivismo-1024x925.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Maccari_collettivismo-1024x925.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Maccari_collettivismo-300x271.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Maccari_collettivismo-768x694.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Maccari_collettivismo-332x300.jpg 332w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/Maccari_collettivismo.jpg 1611w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-408\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maccari, Collectivism, \u00abIl Selvaggio\u00bb, 6-7, 15 May 1934<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gadda\u2019s text disrupts the emotional regime performed by fascism by making visible the fear underneath. <strong>Fear<\/strong>, mainly associated with death, crosses this literary work from the very beginning to the very end. <strong>Death<\/strong>, and particularly the violent murder of opponents, seems to inhabit the unconscious of fascism, as a number of caricatures from the period impressively point out. Caricatures visualised the <strong>phantom of death<\/strong> hovering over fascism.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_409\" style=\"width: 254px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-409\" class=\"wp-image-409 \" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/11_c_Knocking_Death-269x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"244\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/11_c_Knocking_Death-269x300.jpg 269w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/11_c_Knocking_Death-768x856.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/11_c_Knocking_Death-918x1024.jpg 918w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/11_c_Knocking_Death.jpg 1111w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-409\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hahn Jr, Someone is Knocking, \u00abNotenkraker\u00bb<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_410\" style=\"width: 249px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-410\" class=\"wp-image-410 \" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/12_Morte_Croci-263x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"271\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-410\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hahn Jr, Tiranny or Death, \u00abNotenkrakerr\u00bb<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The deathly inclination of fascism becomes overwhelming during the <strong>pro-war campaigns<\/strong>. Society seems to quiver with enthusiasm for the imminent bloodbaths. Gadda creates a parallel between the fear he experienced serving in WWI and the fear he experienced in the <strong>war-acclaiming fascist society<\/strong>. He compares \u00abthat anxieties, that vigils, that sacred hopes, that prayers, that pain shaping the texture of souls, of my soul, in the remote years\u00bb and the \u00abdesperate certainty of ruin, and the breath of darkness, which disrupted lives, and my life, in the present years\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>From its origin, <strong>fascism worshipped death<\/strong>. The very first image of the book released by the regime in 1932 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the conquest of power displays the monumental grave of a \u00abfascist martyr\u00bb.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_412\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-412\" class=\"size-large wp-image-412\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/martiri_fascisti-1024x848.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/martiri_fascisti-1024x848.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/martiri_fascisti-300x248.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/martiri_fascisti-768x636.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/martiri_fascisti-362x300.jpg 362w, https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/files\/2018\/01\/martiri_fascisti.jpg 1857w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-412\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monument for the Fascist Martyrs<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The last lines of <em>Eros e Priapo<\/em> allude to the same <strong>fascist celebration of martyrs<\/strong>. In these ceremonies, fascists used to call the name of the dead, then shout the word <em>present<\/em>, to say: alive in memory. But after this celebration, Gadda says, the comrades disappear and the corpse \u00abremained by himself in his coffin and ground. The grim, vile echo of that <em>present<\/em> was not faded yet, and already they sat at the table, with the bad face on their maccheroni\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Once deceptive enthusiasm is deconstructed through the lens of anger, what is left of fascism is the loneliness of this corpse, irradiating the <strong>bare fear<\/strong> that is one of the crucial emotions of the short, but scary, Twentieth Century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What follows is the text of the paper I gave the 20 June 2017 at the International Conference \u00abFears and\u00a0Angers. Historical and Contemporary Perspectives\u00bb, Queen Mary University, 19-20 June 2017. Probably Federico Fellini\u2019s Oscar-winning movie, Amarcord, released in 1973, perfectly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/2018\/01\/15\/anger-as-misshapen-fear-fascism-and-the-emotional-body\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14,15,16,8,9,19,11],"tags":[141,140,133,139,23,137,142,25,143,134,145,26,27,144,135,138,136,30,154,153,45,152,132],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-20th-century","category-generic-figures","category-historical-figures","category-illustrations","category-paintings","category-press","category-prose","category-sketches","tag-abel-faivre","tag-akar","tag-barbara-rosenwein","tag-chancel","tag-eros-e-priapo","tag-fascism","tag-gabriele-galantara-rata-langa","tag-gadda","tag-girus","tag-guttuso","tag-hahn-jr","tag-half-lenght-portrait","tag-italy","tag-jouenne","tag-maccari","tag-man-woman","tag-manzu","tag-mussolini","tag-pathos-formula","tag-pathosformeln","tag-portrait","tag-warburg","tag-william-reddy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}