Table Of ContentFascism, Aviation and Mythical Modernity
Fascism, Aviation and
Mythical Modernity
Fernando Esposito
Universität Tübingen, Germany
Translated by Patrick Camiller
© Fernando Esposito 2015
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Originally published as Mythische Moderne. Aviatik, Faschismus und die
Sehnsucht nach Ordnung in Deutschland und Italien, © 2011 by
Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, Munich
English edition first published 2015 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-56065-3 ISBN 978-1-137-36299-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137362995
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Aviation, fascism and the longing for order 2
Theoretical and methodological approach 6
Definition of the central analytical categories 11
Fascism 13
Fascism and modernity 20
Modernity 27
Myth 39
Fascism – a working definition 42
Structure of the work 45
Part I Longing for Order
1 Idea non vincit: Warburg and the Crisis of Liberal Modernity 49
Bourgeois, citizen of the world,Bildungsbürger 50
Why Athens has to be constantly won back from Alexandria 57
Disenchantment of the serpent 63
Idea vincitt, or the way out of the cave 68
2 Icarus Rising: D’Annunzio, the Flying Artificer of Myth 80
The war prophet of May 1915 82
Eia! Eia! Alalà! D’Annunzio the war hero 87
Anomie and political religion 102
Fiume and the sacralization of politics 106
3 Longing for Order – Summary 115
Part II Fractured Order
1 Don Quixote of the Air 123
Aerial acrobats or supermen – the Brescia air show 126
“The War for the Price of One Mark”: The promise of authenticity 139
Media workers and the everyday myths of warfare 159
2 Flying Swords and Mechanized Warfare 166
The social construction of the hero 169
The eyes of the army: a brief sketch of the air war 1914–1918 176
Birth of the aviator-hero from the “battle of materiel” 185
Overcoming stasis 187
The machine as instrument of power 190
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viii Contents
A knightly duel of man against man 196
“Elegant like at a dinner”: the hero’s glamorous life 203
3 Transitional Heroes and the Order of the Gemeinschaft 210
The aviator-hero and the unity of the wartime nation 212
“Total mobilization” and total solidarity 222
The aviator-hero and theVolksgemeinschaft 229
The figure of the aviatior-hero and the martial nobility of action 234
The “worker-soldier” and the age of the fourth estate 246
“I want to become a Boelcke!” The inscription of the hero on
the community and the national life 260
4 Fractured Order – Summary 268
Part III Eternal Order
1 Volare!! The Fascist Take-off Towards Eternal Order 273
Jünger’s monumentalist remembrance of war and the
beginnings of the future 275
The fascist awakening: abolishing history from the air 289
Aerovita: aerolife in a new future 305
The exhibition of myth: the Esposizione dell’aeronautica italiana 333
2 Fascism and Mythical Modernity 348
The centrality of palingenetic myth 354
Myth as a response to the crisis of reason 357
Myth as a response to the crisis of historicism 361
The aestheticization of politics in and through myth 366
The complementarity of myth and modernity 371
Bibliography 377
Index 413
List of Illustrations
Introduction
I.1 Chart of aviation discourse 10
Part I
1.1 Aby Warburg, sketch for the postage stamp Idea vincit:
Warburg Institute Archive, London 71
1.2 Otto Heinrich Strohmeyer,Idea Vincitt, 1926: Harvard Art Museum,
Fogg Art Museum, gift of Paul J. Sachs, M3027. Photo:
Allan Macintyre © President and Fellows of Harvard College 71
2.1 Gabriele D’Annunzio, Vienna leaflet: Archivi del Vittoriale,
Archivio iconografico, Gardone Riviera 101
Part II
1.1 D’Annunzio in airplane: Archivi del Vittoriale, Archivio iconografico,
Gardone Riviera 134
1.2 Covers of war books published by Ullstein and Scherl publishing
houses: Ullstein Verlag, Berlin and August Scherl Verlag, Berlin 152
2.1 Das fliegende Schwert: published by Verlag des Deutschen
Offizierblattes, Oldenburg 168
2.2 Publicity issued by the aircraft producer Fokker in 1916: from
Deutsche Luftfahrerzeitschriftt, No. 21/22, November 22, 1916, p. 336 193
3.1 Poster proclaiming “Durch Arbeit zum Sieg! Durch Sieg zum Frieden!”
(Through Work to Victory! Through Victory to Peace!), Alexander
M. Cay, 1918 248
3.2 The funeral procession for Oswald Boelcke: Vogel & Vogel
Verlag, Leipzig 263
Part III
1.1 War literature published in Germany: numbers of titles per year 279
1.2 Giacomo Balla’s Balbo e I transvolatori (1931): Museo Storico
dell’Aeronautica; Tullio Crali,Incuneandosi nell’abitato (In tuffo
sulla città)(1939): Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di
Trento e Rovereto (Mart), Rovereto 328
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