'Il mito Americano' and masculinities of the Fascist era: In Memory of Jane Dunnett

This article discusses how the late Jane Dunnett's recent work might inform discussions of the contradictions of Fascist masculinity. Dunnett's study suggests that Taylorism and Fordism, both crucial in shaping twentieth-century masculinity, were, despite the regime's proclaimed move towards autarky, influential in Fascist Italy, and that American cultural products, including books and films, were not automatically subject to censorship and approbation. Testing these theses, the article looks briefly at the reception of Walt Whitman in Fascist Italy via the Whitman songs of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Cesare Pavese's essay on Whitman, and Mario Praz's entry on Whitman in the 1937 Enciclopedia Treccani.