Le politiche culturali e le rievocazioni storiche nell'Italia Fascista e nel Portogallo salazarista (1930-1950)

Comparative studies on the connections between the Portuguese Estado Novo and fascist Italy have accrued in the last years. Research on diplomatic relations, cultural, political, and military connections have gazed upon the peculiarity of the Estado Novo, as the Salazar’s regime is still under speculation of whether it was a fascist or parafascist regime or a right conservative dictatorship. Additionally, many studies have been produced on the use of tradition during the fascist regime and the postwar democracy in Italy, or in Estado Novo Portugal. However, the importance of legitimising national political ideologies through the display of history in historical reenactments have been scarcely analysed, nor have been compared with other contemporary use of history. The thesis thus aims to fulfil this gap through a comparison between fascist Italy and Salazarist Estado Novo usage of medieval and modern national symbols and myths in pivotal displays of legitimising discourses, as the historical reenactments. The thesis will analyse four Italian historical reenactments and compare them with four Portuguese historical commemorations. Through a meticulous study of archival resources the research aims to demonstrate how the cultural politics of the fascist regime experienced remarkable difficulties in controlling Italian historical reenactments, as both the citizens and the municipal administrations were developing their own interpretations of the historical memory and symbols embedded in the reenactment. Concurrently, the Estado Novo’s cultural politics were lingering on a sumptuous aesthetical spectacle, organized by the young modernist artists revolving around António Ferro. However, many similar problems to the Italian ones were reported, thus demonstrating that the two regime were unable to understand and tolerate any “profanation” of their sacred rituals hinging on a biased historical genealogy.