Totalitarian Culture of Fascist Italy: Historiography, Problems, Prospects

The paper presents a brief historiographical overview of both foreign and domestic research dedicated to the totalitarian culture of Fascist Italy. The authors aim to identify the main areas of study of the totalitarian culture of fascist Italy, the main “conflict zones” of this part of historical science, and attempts to solve these problems through interdisciplinary methods. Through historical-typological and historical-comparative methods, the development of various trends in historiography is considered, as well as the main problems that researchers have faced and continue to face. Through historical-systemic and problem-chronological methods, the place of totalitarian culture within the totalitarian system is constituted in the work. The authors of the work also touch upon the problem of the politicization of history, the “abolition” of totalitarian culture and its consequences. The paper provides examples of solutions to this problem in the historiography of totalitarian culture. Thus, the authors consider the possibilities of using a receptive approach in the context of studying the ideological attitudes of individual population groups. Attention is also paid to the study of the discursive practices of fascism and the prospects for the study of totalitarian culture using memory studies. It is concluded that interdisciplinary research in the field of totalitarian culture is currently the most promising, as it helps to de-ideologize the cultural phenomena of fascism, making their study more objective.