Venice as a Mythological Machine. The Baroque Rhetoric of Fascist Imperialism

Abstract

This paper connects two critical paradigms: the model of the mythological machine developed by Furio Jesi and the ideology of the venezianità that has been investigated, with respect to the Fascist period, by Mario Isnenghi. In the early 20th century, the myth of the Serenissima plays a key role both in the works of Gabriele D’Annunzio and in the movies inspired by them. This paper focuses on a relevant example taken from such cinematography (La nave, 1921), but it also extends the analysis to other sources, like the glossy magazines and the historical studies printed in Venice during the Ventennio. By projecting the Venetian past onto the Fascist present, these publications offer a rhetorical cloak to disguise the financial and military ambitions of the rising Venetian bourgeoisie. This paper makes use of the conceptual tools elaborated by Jesi in order to dissect this mythology. The goal is to outline a specific variant of the myth of Venice, whose sources do not belong to the 16th-century vulgate, that is the most famous version of the myth. Such sources date back to the second half of the 17th century instead, when the wars against the Turks nurtured a warlike and individualistic rhetoric, both in public celebrations and in typography. The ideas and the narrative that germinated in the Baroque era, as well as the names of the doges and the captains from that time, can be found both in the works of Gino Damerini, a central figure in Venetian cultural life during the Ventennio, and in the verses written by D’Annunzio to celebrate the Italian war in Libya (Merope, 1912).