Gabriele D'Annunzio and Italy's Renaissance

This book examines how Gabriele D Annunzio (1863 1938) reimagined the Renaissance as a metaphor for Italy s national rebirth. Rather than a nostalgic revival, the Renaissance became, in his hands, a future-oriented ideological project that served as the backbone of his ethnonationalist worldview. Tracing how modernist temporality intersects with historical mythmaking and nationalist discourse, the book positions D Annunzio within broader European debates on decadence, modernity, and regeneration. It also reconsiders his role as a public intellectual whose mythmaking shaped Italy s cultural identity and modern ambitions. By highlighting the strategic mobilization of tradition, this study assesses the significance of D Annunzio s Renaissance ideology within the cultural politics of European modernism. In an era of resurgent far-right ideologies and nationalist imaginaries across Europe and beyond, revisiting figures like D Annunzio is essential to understanding how historical myths have shaped past political narratives and continue to influence those of the present.

Chapter 1: Introduction D Annunzio s Renaissance. - Chapter 2: Decadence and `Renaissance in D Annunzio s Fin-de-Siècle Reception. - Chapter 3: Contesting Modernity in the Fin-de-Siècle: A New Literature For A New Secular Morality. - Chapter 4: D Annunzio s Cult of Expectation and The Ethnonationalist Politics of `Renaissance . - Chapter 5: A New Europe? Programmatic Modernism, Anthropopoiesis, and Italy s Renaissance. - Chapter 6: A New Europe? Programmatic Modernism, Anthropopoiesis, and Italy s Renaissance.