El cuerpo del duce. Un ensayo sobre el desenlace del fascismo

by Sergio Luzzatto

En una entrevista Jung retrató a Mussolini como «el hombre de la fuerza física», con él «se tiene la agradable sensación de estar frente a un ser humano, mientras con Hitler se siente miedo». Seguramente, junto con Berlusconi, el duce es el líder político más corporal del siglo XX italiano. El consenso del que llegó a gozar se basó en su físico y en el dominio del espacio. Sergio Luzzatto sigue la pista de ese carisma a través de una visión panóptica del fascismo y del antifascismo cultural y político, pre y postbélico, incluyendo la gran literatura y la literatura de consumo, hasta completar una apasionante radiografía de las representaciones del dictador en el imaginario colectivo. Cuando la pasión se convirtió en odio, Mussolini fue vejado y colgado ya muerto en la plaza pública, en una «inolvidable, pero no memorable» orgía de violencia que precedió al rastro folletinesco dejado por su cadáver. En 1957, más de diez años después de su fusilamiento, por esas cosas que tiene la política, pudo por fin descansar en Predappio, su localidad natal.

Genres: History, Italy, Nonfiction

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Sergio Luzzatto is the author of Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age, which won the prestigious Cundill Prize in History, and of The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini's Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy. A professor of history at the University of Turin, Luzzatto is a regular contributor to Il Sole 24 Ore.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some sections of this book were fascinating, other parts... not so much. It wasn't a very long book, but took me forever to finish (or get to the end where it got very interesting again). We'll... now I know a lot about what happened to Mussolini's body after death. Great dinner conversation material. Since I usually eat alone (my choice), I'll be sure to bring up this topic if ever I do find myself engaged in meaningless dinner conversation. I found sick pictures online, I should keep them in my wallet.
Read this book if you're a morbid person like me, and you really need to know everything about Mussolini's body post mortem.

[Jeffrey Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant and creative historical study about the importance of Mussolini's physical charisma when he was the dictator and about his posthumous career, as it were, focused on attitudes toward his humiliated and venerated body.
As you might remember, he was summarily executed by partisans, and then his body was hanged upside down at a gas station in Milan.
You have to know a lot more about postwar Italian politics fully to appreciate this book, but I know a lot more now than I did before reading it.
It was translated brilliantly by the late Frederika Randall.

[Tiffany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plot is interesting. Writing is dry af. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for this but it took me two weeks to read and I had to drag my eyes to the pages continuously.

Like a few other books for me this year, this one could have also been trimmed down. It was also organized in a manner I can understand but still wish was more chronological.

[Tyler Wolanin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review at link: https://tylerwolanin.com/blog/2019/9/...

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books I'll likely read about Mussolini and Italian fascism. Very well written and researched, I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in Italian history of this time period.

[Thomas Widrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the book in the German translation, which is not among the editions listed on Goodreads. It was published by “Eichborn Verlag” as part of the series “Die andere Bibliothek” (“The Other Library”), which is, in most cases, already an indicator for a quality book. And this is the least that can be said about Luzzatto’s captivating account of Mussolini’s body and its astonishing afterlife.