Overcoming Distance and Space Through Technology: Record Aviation Linking Fascist Italy With South America

TY - JOUR

T1 - Overcoming Distance and Space Through Technology

T2 - Record Aviation Linking Fascist Italy With South America

AU - Caprotti, Federico

PY - 2011/8

Y1 - 2011/8

N2 - This article analyzes modern, discursive attempts to overcome distance and space through analyses of discourses focused on record aviation attempts in 1930s' fascist Italy. Two particular flights are analyzed, both linking Italy with South America. The first analyzed flight is a 1937 seaplane distance record attempt; the second was a 1939 endeavor to establish regular, scheduled airmail services between Italy and Brazil. The flights are analyzed using institutional importance criteria, based on the preservation of archival documents concerning the record attempts by the Ministry of Aeronautics. The argument presented here is that the examined flights were of importance to the regime for immediate propaganda purposes, as well as for the use of aviation as a metaphor for Italian fascism. In particular, the article uses a framework that frames Italian fascism as a modern phenomenon, rooted in the ideological and political utility of the separation between natural and social spheres. Aviation, when identified with fascism, became a technosocial discursive realm juxtaposed to the natural limits and boundaries to be overcome through aeronautical technology. The article resultantly analyzes the discursive construction and representation of aviation, and nature, in the case of the two record flights.

AB - This article analyzes modern, discursive attempts to overcome distance and space through analyses of discourses focused on record aviation attempts in 1930s' fascist Italy. Two particular flights are analyzed, both linking Italy with South America. The first analyzed flight is a 1937 seaplane distance record attempt; the second was a 1939 endeavor to establish regular, scheduled airmail services between Italy and Brazil. The flights are analyzed using institutional importance criteria, based on the preservation of archival documents concerning the record attempts by the Ministry of Aeronautics. The argument presented here is that the examined flights were of importance to the regime for immediate propaganda purposes, as well as for the use of aviation as a metaphor for Italian fascism. In particular, the article uses a framework that frames Italian fascism as a modern phenomenon, rooted in the ideological and political utility of the separation between natural and social spheres. Aviation, when identified with fascism, became a technosocial discursive realm juxtaposed to the natural limits and boundaries to be overcome through aeronautical technology. The article resultantly analyzes the discursive construction and representation of aviation, and nature, in the case of the two record flights.

KW - aviation

KW - fascism

KW - nature

KW - discourse

KW - Brazil

KW - South America

KW - PONTINE MARSHES

KW - URBANIZATION

KW - MATERIALITY

KW - MODERNITY

KW - CITY

U2 - 10.1177/1206331211414459

DO - 10.1177/1206331211414459

M3 - Article

SN - 1206-3312

VL - 14

SP - 330

EP - 348

JO - Space and Culture

JF - Space and Culture

IS - 3

ER -