L'éducation du français sous le fascisme, la France comme modèle pour la création identitaire

Abstrakt

This article examines the role of French language education during Italy's Fascist regime (1923–1943) as a tool for constructing national identity. Mussolini's government used education as a means of disseminating Fascist values, shaping a “new Italian” loyal to the regime's ideology. While promoting Italian nationalism, the teaching of foreign languages—particularly French—was used to serve Fascist objectives through controlled and ideologically charged materials. French textbooks of the era were carefully curated to align with state propaganda, presenting French culture as noteworthy yet inherently subordinate to the greatness of Italy. These materials emphasized discipline, militarism, and uniformity, embedding messages that reinforced Italian cultural supremacy. Although linguistic policies aimed to suppress foreign influence within Italy, they paradoxically included the strategic use of foreign language education to assert ideological control. The article situates these practices within the broader historical context of Italy’s unification challenges, regional divisions, and generally low levels of national language proficiency. By juxtaposing Italian and French cultural elements, the regime sought to highlight Italy's superiority and tat the same tie to acknowledge its ties to French modernity. Through discourse analysis and textbook examples, this study reveals the complex mechanisms of Fascist propaganda in education, which blended overt messaging with more subtle ideological cues. It concludes by underscoring the ongoing importance of critically analyzing educational materials for latent ideological content.