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Mary Ann Frese Witt. The Search for Modern Tragedy: Aesthetic Fascism in Italy and France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Pp. xii + 259. $45.00.
The dust jacket informs us that in this study, Mary Ann Frese Witt "explores the work of a group of European writers and artists who came to fascism by way of aesthetics." That is a fair description, but it might be said of this group that their art was as regrettable as their political destination. Today, who has patience for the work of Gabriele D'Annunzio and his fanatic followers, or Thierry Maulnier, Robert Brasillach, Drieu La Rochelle, and Henry de Montherlant in France? Of course, Witt does, but then she is a very patient critic. Some of her readings, perhaps, are longer than might be warranted by the plays. However, her meticulous and valuable intellectual history of Italy and France between the wars amply justifies this effort. For readers who may not be familiar with the writings of the fascist literati, this is an important study. At least two of the playwrights covered-Luigi Pirandello and Jean Anouilh-have claims on our attention, and Witt provides shrewd insights into their work by reconstituting the political and aesthetic debates out of which their art emerged.
Witt uses the term "aesthetic fascism" to delineate the nexus of ideas that shaped the dramaturgy of these figures-a term more nuanced than "fascist aesthetics," which carries the implication of party propaganda. The playwrights under consideration varied in their political commitments, but all were drawn to a movement in the arts inspired by reactionary thinkers, among them the early interpreters of Nietzsche. A key figure in this study is Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938), who hailed the rise of Mussolini but drew mainly on his reading of Nietzsche for his dramatic credo. (That he misread Nietzsche is an important point not treated by Witt.) D'Annunzio was deaf to Nietzsche's irony, and turning his subtle aphorisms into briefs for fascist drama, he glorified the...