Afterword: memory and the past: fascism, spectacle, history.

The article examines how Italian fascism under Mussolini constructed an imagined national community by mythically appropriating the past, particularly through the interplay of memory and history. It highlights fascism's contradictory cultural politics, which combined reverence for tradition with modern revolutionary ambitions, using diverse artistic forms—including ancient Greek drama—to mobilize mass emotional engagement and legitimize the regime's narrative. The regime's cultural strategy involved blending historical documentation with sacralized memory, as exemplified by the Exhibit of the Fascist Revolution, to create a unifying and emotionally charged national identity. This approach reflected broader modern dilemmas about the reliability and function of memory versus history, revealing fascism's selective and instrumental use of the past to support its totalitarian vision and political project of national rebirth.