Mary Ann Frese Witt. The Search for Modern Tragedy: Aesthetic Fascism in Italy and France.(Book Review)

Publication: Comparative Drama

Publication Date: 22-SEP-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 www.wmich.edu/compdr

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Pp. xii + 259. $45.00.

The dust jacket informs us that in this study, Mary Ann Frese Witt "explores the work of a group of European writers and artists who came to fascism by way of aesthetics." That is a fair description, but it might be said of this group that their art was as regrettable as their political destination. Today, who has patience for the work of Gabriele D'Annunzio and his fanatic followers, or Thierry Maulnier, Robert Brasillach, Drieu La Rochelle, and Henry de Montherlant in France? Of course, Witt does, but then she is a very patient critic. Some of her readings, perhaps, are longer than might be warranted by the plays. However, her meticulous and valuable intellectual history of Italy and France between the wars amply justifies this effort. For readers who may not be familiar with the writings of the fascist literati, this is an important study. At least two of the playwrights covered--Luigi Pirandello and Jean Anouilh--have claims on our attention, and Witt provides shrewd insights into their work by reconstituting the political and aesthetic debates out of which their art emerged.

Witt uses the...

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