Superman Supreme: Fascist Body as Political Icon - Global Fascism

by Mangan; J.A.

• ISBN13: 9780714680149
• ISBN10: 0714680141
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-04-29
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This volume dealing with the male body in the iconography of fascism reflects an ambition rather than an achievement. The supremacy of the global fascist superman never became a reality but was certainly an intention. This work explores the use of the image of the male body for this purpose in European, American and Asian fascism of varying degrees and various interpretations, and the differences and similarities involved. Among the similarities isthe fact that sport in all the cases in this volume was at the centre of the induction of the male body (and mind) into martial self-sacrifice. Sport was an important part of fascist socialization. The reasons are not hard to find. Sport develops muscle and muscle is equated with power - literally and metaphorically. War, the essence of fascism, demands physical fitness and sport helps promote this fitness. Competitive sport can help develop attitudes of aggression and aggression is essential in war.

Author Biography

J.A. Mangan is Director of the International Research Centre for Sport, Socialisation and Society at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Series Editor's Foreword	xiii
J.A. Mangan
Prologue: Global Fascism and the Male Body: Ambitions, Similarities and Dissimilarities	1	(26)
J.A. Mangan
Model of Masculinity: Mussolini, the `New Italian' of the Fascist Era	27	(35)
Gigliola Gori
Muscular Anschluss: German Bodies and Austrian Imitators	62	(20)
Wolfgang Weber
Paula Black
Fascist Political Athletes and the Body Politic: Bulgaria Reborn	82	(22)
Vassil Girginov
Peter Bankov
The Iconic Symbolism of Niels Bukh: Aryan Body Culture, Danish Gymnastics and Nordic Tradition	104	(15)
Hans Bonde
Fascists and Christians! In the Spanish Martial Tradition of the Soldier-Monk	119	(26)
Teresa Gonzalez Aja
Return to Manhood: The Cult of Masculinity and the British Union of Fascists	145	(18)
Tony Collins
Bodies from Brazil: Fascist Aesthetics in a South American Setting	163	(18)
Lamartine P. Da Costa
Plinio Labriola
Militarism, Sacrifice and Emperor Worship: The Expendable Male Body in Fascist Japanese Martial Culture	181	(24)
J.A. Mangan
Takeshi Komagome
Blue Shirts, Nationalists and Nationalism: Fascism in 1930s China	205	(22)
Fan Hong
Epilogue: Prometheus: Past, Present and Future	227	(10)
J.A. Mangan
Select Bibliography	237	(6)
Notes on Contributors	243	(2)
Abstracts	245	(6)
Index	251