Political Cartooning Mocking Mussolini's Opposition: The Left Targeting Itself

• Authors: Efharis Mascha
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper discusses the socialist/Leftist political humour during Mussolini's ascendance to power (1919-1925). I am especially concerned with the part of political satire that was drawn by the Left mocking the Left itself. This type of political satire has a specificity very challenging and interesting at the same time. It makes evident the limits of the fascist censor and draws the line between political satire and crude political propaganda. I will analyse political cartoons of the aforementioned period and Gramsci's theory of hegemony will shed light both to the reading of this humorous discourse and the left's political practices. The paper is divided into four sub-themes discussing the representation of socialism with the bourgeoisie, the Biennio Rosso, the Socialist fragmentation and the Aventino. The narrative across these major events reveals the counter-hegemonic project of the Left to the fascist ascendance together with their share of responsibility for the latter's power.

Keywords

EN

Political satire; Italian Left; popular culture; Discourse Analysis; hegemony; fascism

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Journal: Lodz Papers in Pragmatics
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 361-380

Dates

published

2010-01-01

online

2011-02-03

Contributors

author

Efharis Mascha

• University of the Aegean

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10016-010-0018-6