The 20th century Icarus: the glorification of aviation in Italy between the two world wars

Abstract

This paper deals with the glorification of the aviation in Italy between the two world wars. Under the Fascist regime the aviation was celebrated in different ways - not at least with the arts and in literature. Aviation got a particular spiritual aura, whereas pilot was considered a hero and a sort of a new superman. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that, regardless the sublimity, aviation was nevertheless a vital tool of power, which ultimately contributes to validate the hypothesis about the destructive nature of technology.