The Enemy of the New Man : Homosexuality in Fascist Italy /

In this first in-depth historical study of homosexuality in Fascist Italy, Lorenzo Benadusi brings to light immensely important archival documents regarding the sexual politics of the Italian Fascist regime; he adds new insights to the study of the complex relationships of masculinity, sexuality, an...

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Online Access: Full text (MCPHS users only)
Main Author: Benadusi, Lorenzo, 1973-
Other Authors: Dingee, Suzanne, Pudney, Jennifer
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Italian
Published: Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, 2012
Series:George L. Mosse series in modern European cultural and intellectual history.
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Local Note:ProQuest Ebook Central
Description
Summary:In this first in-depth historical study of homosexuality in Fascist Italy, Lorenzo Benadusi brings to light immensely important archival documents regarding the sexual politics of the Italian Fascist regime; he adds new insights to the study of the complex relationships of masculinity, sexuality, and Fascism; he explores the connections between new Fascist values and preexisting Italian traditional and Roman Catholic views on morality; he documents both the Fascist regime's denial of the existence of homosexuality in Italy and its clandestine strategies and motivations for repressing and imprisoning homosexuals; he uncovers the ways that accusations of homosexuality (whether true or false) were used against political and personal enemies; and above all, he shows how homosexuality was deemed the enemy of the Fascist "New Man," an ideal of a virile warrior and dominating husband vigorously devoted to the "political" function of producing children for the Fascist state. Benadusi investigates the regulation and regimentation of gender in Fascist Italy, and the extent to which, in uneasy concert with the Catholic Church, the regime engaged in the cultural and legal engineering of masculinity and femininity. He cites a wealth of unpublished documents, official speeches, letters, coerced confessions, private letters and diaries, legal documents, and government memos to reveal and analyze how the orders issued by the regime attempted to protect the "integrity of the Italian race." For the first time, documents from the Vatican archives illuminate how the Catholic Church dealt with issues related to homosexuality during the Fascist period in Italy.
Item Description:Originally published as Il nemico dell'uomo nuovo: L'omosessualità nell'esperimento totalitario fascista. Milano : Feltrinelli, 2005.
Physical Description:1 online resource (xxi, 432 pages) : illustrations
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:0299283933
9780299283933
1283486091
9781283486095
0299283941
9780299283940
9786613486097
6613486094
Language:English.