Abstract
AbstractAlthough political satire can be considered a significant part of humor studies and cultural studies, it has been systematically neglected by theorists of both disciplines. This article looks critically at the role of political humor expressed in early Italian satirical journals in the period 1919–1924, which was central to the rise of fascism. Freud's techniques of condensation and displacement and Gramsci's account of hegemony will be the analytical tools for the satirical discourse and its counter-hegemonic project to the fascist ideological ascendance. Both tools will facilitate my analysis of political satire as a discourse expressing revolutionary sentiments and occupying a middle space between the dominant ideology and the discourse that resists it. In order to understand this space, which is not anti-hegemonic but counter-hegemonic, we should look at the language of the dominant discourse and how this is used by political satire. Having in mind the particular role of censorship and the constraints it poses to the satirical discourse, I will discuss three empirical sections in relation to the ascent of Fascism: the role of power, the political consensus and the political practices.
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