HomePedagogyClassroom LessonsLesson 3: “Youthful Rebellion”

Lesson 3: “Youthful Rebellion”

Objective: To appreciate the ways in which the contemporary Far Right stokes a sense of youthful rebellion and its connection to rhetorical and physical violence.

Analytical Skills: Close reading

Instructions: Navigate to the “Themes” section of this website and click on “Youth.” Some of the materials featured here present a call to action, asking young people to rebel against the status quo and purportedly “corrupt” politicians and public institutions. Others, on the other hand, promote cultural events like concerts, or book launches related to Far Right history and collective memory.

3.1 Conjuring the Battlefield

Students should look through this collection of materials, paying close attention to the turns of phrases on many of these posters. For example, imperative verbs including “scaglia” (unleash), slogans like “chi osa vince” ([he] who dares wins), and names like Lotta Studentesca (Student Struggle), promote a war-like political consciousness and prepares youthful Far Right followers for a revolutionary confrontation with, as one poster aptly phrases it, “the overlords of power.”

Questions to Consider:

  1. What evidence can you find to suggest the far right presents the political arena as a battlefield? 
  2. What impact would this framing have on the way far right youth understand their engagement with political issues, or perceive their adversaries?

Examples to Consider:

3.2 Subversive Subculture

Students should look closely at the materials publicizing events such as concerts or public events, such as roundtables and book talks. See, for example, the posters by CasaPound Italia (CPI) or their neo-fascist rock ‘n roll group, Zetazeroalfa. Instructors should guide their students in fleshing out the connection between the messages being promoted in these posters and particular locations in Rome, such as the CPI-affiliated Cutty Sark club or the CPI headquarters in Rome. These Far Right-affiliated spaces help to stitch Rome’s various neo-fascist movements and organizations together into a cohesive community, creating in the process a potentially more potent and successful platform for spreading Far Right talking points and values.

Questions to Consider:

  1. How might these types of community-based events help to present this dangerous ideology as a way of life, as more than simply quotidian politics? 
  2. In what ways do these events, and their promotional materials, contribute to the emergence of a culture of youthful rebellion in contemporary Italy? And how is this culture of youthful rebellion intentionally weaponized by these groups in pursuing their long-term socio-political objectives?

Examples to Consider:

3.3 Suggesting Violence

Students should consider the visual language of violence in this collection of propaganda materials, looking carefully for examples of violent iconographies, colors which suggest rebellion, revolution, or struggle, and the role that imagery of ancient mythology plays in promoting a political culture centered on warfare as both a mentality and lifestyle. This point could lead on to a discussion of topics including the use of violent language on the internet, and the connection between violence and toxic masculinity. Instructors may also wish to draw upon the above-provided lesson plan, “Making Martyrs,” in discussing the various ways in which the Far Right’s “martyrs” to political violence are commemorated, asking students to think about how this commemorative culture also celebrates and promotes violence. 

Questions to Consider:

  1. Which emotions might these words/images stir up? 
  2. How might these implicit (and explicit) suggestions of violence be used to mobilize young people?

Examples to Consider:

Recommended Resources

DeCook, Julia R. 2018. “Memes and Symbolic Violence: #ProudBoys and the Use of Memes for Propaganda and the Construction of Collective Identity.” Learning, Media and Technology 43:4 (October): 485–504.

Froio, Caterina, Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Giorgia Bulli, and Matteo Albanese. 2020. CasaPound Italia: Contemporary Extreme-Right Politics. New York: Routledge. (See, in particular, Chapter 5 on “Collective Identity.”)

Marcks, Holger, and Janina Pawelz. 2022. “From Myths of Victimhood to Fantasies of Violence: How Far-Right Narratives of Imperilment Work.” Terrorism and Political Violence 34:7 (October): 1415–32.

Jones, Tobias. 2018. “The Fascist Movement that Has Brought Mussolini Back to the Mainstream.” The Guardian (February 22).