Fascist Violence in Zadar before the March on Rome : Authority and Masculinity in a Post-Imperial Setting

Abstract

This article discusses the role played by political violence in the emergence of fascism in post-WWI Zadar. In a former multi-ethnic imperial setting, fascist violence in the early years of Italian occupation led to a redefinition of the local political landscape and to a new performance of masculinity within the political field. The threats, the actions, and the language of violence became the distinctive marker of fascism and they allowed this faction to marginalize local competitors, such as the political representatives of the Serbs and Croats in town or the Republican Party. Moreover, violence was crucial to achieving a symbiosis with the ruling conservative elite of Zadar anticipating, and facilitating, the seizure of power in 1922. Through the use of archival material and the local press, the article provides a close reading of episodes of violence involving fascists. These used a new semantic and praxis of violence to create a convergence between masculine honor and the honor of the new national Italian sovereignty in Zadar.