State Martyrs: Aesthetics and Performativity of a Contemporary Political Discourse

Abstract

The paper focuses on the emergence of national state martyrs in modernity. The investigation postulates a connection between procedures of legitimization of political authority and martyr figurations. It considers martyrological representations as linguistic performances, opening a civil religious space. On the basis of genealogical discourse analysis, the author argues that through secularization the figure of the martyr underwent a transition from the sacral and theological to the profane and political sphere of meaning. In the final part, the paper analyzes the ideological implications of the representation of politician Aldo Moro, killed in 1978 by the Red Brigades, as a state martyr.

The battle for influence: Commemoration of transnational martyrs in the Italian diaspora of the U.S. under fascism

“…The notion of secular martyrdom in Italy has inspired critical inquiry among scholars: Riall’s (2010) work examines the use of ‘martyr cults’ by religious and nationalist movements during the Risorgimento; Mancini’s (2015) monograph Il martire necessario charts the evolving narrative of martyrdom from Unification to the fall of Fascism; Falasca-Zamponi (1998), Suzzi Valli (2008), Staderini (2008) and Foot (2009) have considered the rituals and rhetoric of Fascist martyrdom; Gundle’s (2000) work on the civic religion of the Resistance reflects on the construction of the partisan martyr – a theme examined by Schwarz (2010) in his study of the new Republic’s commemoration of its dead post 1945; while Scolari (2017) has identified the creation of state martyrs during Italy’s Years of Lead. This existing scholarship has continued to privilege the nation state as the ‘container-culture’ (Erll, 2011: 7) of the collective identity that has been built upon the pantheon of martyrs at various turning points in Italian history, mapping martyr memory onto Italy’s national territory.…”