This interdisciplinary conference will combine keynote papers, film screenings, and short presentations with panel discussion to develop a comparative view of spectacle and performance culture in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union under Stalin in the years from 1925-1945.
Drawing on archival film footage and new historical interpretations we will explore the cultures of spectacle and the aestheticization of politics in three authoritarian systems of 20th century Europe. Featuring keynote speakers: Patrizia Veroli, LUCE Archive Italy, and Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, UC Santa Barbara, Sociology
Dancing Italian Fascism: Bodies, Practices, Representations
Patrizia Veroli, Lucs Archive, Italy
Body and Performance: Spectacular Totality in Fascist Italy
Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi, UC Santa Barbara, Sociology
Tradition and Ritual in Fascist Italy
Cynthia Polecritti, UCSC, History
Stalinist USSR
Peter Kenez, UCSC, History
Modes of Address in Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will
Margaret Morse, UCSC, Film