220055 Global Fascisms: Historical (Dis-)Entanglements from the 1920s to the 1950s (S) (WiSe 2022/2023)

Once viewed as a phenomenon exclusively related to the European crisis of the interwar years, today fascism is increasingly being analyzed through a global lens. The entanglements and conflicts between radical nationalist movements and regimes across different socio-cultural areas of the world thus constitute a new core interest in fascism studies. This approach analytically challenges western-centrism, not only on a socio-cultural level, but also on a genuinely temporal dimension, e.g. by taking into account contacts and mutual influences beyond the European “fascist era” of the interwar years.

This seminar will tackle recent developments in entangled and global fascism studies from a theoretical-methodological perspective. In a first section, the class will focus on the field’s conceptual background and its consequences for the discourse and practice of historical research. In the second section, exemplary historiographical case studies will be discussed along thematic and regional lines.

All readings assigned to the plenary sessions will be in English. Nevertheless, participants are encouraged to supplement the syllabus with specific material according to their interests and language skills.

Bibliography

(For an extensive syllabus, see the “Semesterapparat” in the FB 14, X-Building)

Albanese, Matteo / del Hierro, Pablo, Transnational Fascism in the Twentieth Century. Spain, Italy, and the Global Neo-Fascist Network. London et al.: Routledge, 2016.

Larsen, Stein Ugelvik (ed.), Fascism Outside Europe. The European Impulse against Domestic Condition in the Diffusion of Global Fascism. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Motadel, David, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 2014.

Thomas, Julia Adeney / Eley, Geoff (eds.), Visualizing Fascism. The Twentieth-Century Rise of the Global Right. Durham et al.: Duke University Press, 2020.