Description
In November of 2023, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome began its “Tolkien: Man, Professor, Author” exhibition, which was opened by the then recently elected Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni. Meloni was elected at the head of a right-wing coalition that promised a reinvigoration of Italian society, from manufacturing to schooling; so why was her government’s first cultural output focussed on a long dead British-South African? Even before coming into power, Meloni’s party, Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), has made Tolkien’s work a mainstay of its politics, appropriating and repackaging its Manichean narrative of good versus evil. In this paper, we look at how Meloni and FdI have appropriated Tolkien’s work through, what we call, ritualistic practices of enjoyment. We analyse Meloni’s and FdI’s ritualised engagement with Tolkien, both in a beyond the exhibit, and argue that this serves to structure collective political subjectivity. We argue that this work of fantasy is more than escapism, it is a fantastical worldview that informs action, provides psychological relief, and allows the far-right to communicate its enjoyment of cultural production.
