Cultura di destra

“One cannot spend several years study¬ing myths or mythology without coming across right wing culture on more than one occasion…”: these were the opening lines of Furio Jesi’s Cultura di destra, first published in 1979. The main focus is on the “technicalization” of the ideal: how it is reduced to a vehicle for propagan¬da and political unrest. Such a method demands and popularizes a language of “ideas without words”, clichés and stereotypes, becoming an idiom that unites the leader and the masses. Ideas without words vibrate in the writings of Frobenius, Mircea Eliade (supporter of the Iron Guard movement) and in Pirandello, but also in the language of literature for the masses (Liala). Highly topical, Cultura di destra investigates obscure patterns, throwing light on phenomena which are still unclear and revealing leftover traces that are incandescent and ever active.

This new edition of Furio Jesi’s classic contains also an unpublished piece and an interview.

Furio Jesi (1941-1980) was an historian of religions, anthropologist, Germanist and a mythologist. Shifting skilfully through the various disciplines he produced ground-breaking interpretations on the myth even in its modern guise. His books include: Letteratura e mito (1968), Il mito (1973), Spartakus (2000).

172 pages, 14 x 21 cm

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