Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0009-7171-4290

Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

History

Reader 1

Andrew Aisenberg

Reader 2

Jonathan Petropoulos

Reader 3

Kevin Vennemann

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Rights Information

2025 Lilly S Katts

Abstract

This thesis explores the convergence of aesthetics and politics in the formation and operation of fascist regimes in twentieth-century Italy and Germany, arguing that aesthetic production functioned not merely as a supplement to political ideology, but as a constitutive instrument in the articulation, dissemination, and internalization of fascist doctrines. Through a comparative and historically grounded analysis, this study examines how the aesthetic sphere was regulated and appropriated by the state apparatus in both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to cultivate consensus, construct identity, and reinforce hegemonic power. By interrogating the evolution of Italian and German aesthetic governance across a period marked by national unification, war, and institutional fragmentation, the research identifies the critical mechanisms wherein symbolic and material control of culture facilitated political domination. Context-driven case studies of aesthetic policy, patronage, and expression inform how fascist regimes employed aesthetic strategies not as monolithic stylistic programs, but as polyvalent modes of ideological intervention. Ultimately, this research critically reassesses the fascist aesthetic project, positing that the aestheticization of politics constituted a historically contingent yet enduring modality through which authoritarian power sought to naturalize itself within the cultural and perceptual fabric of modern mass society.

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