Towards the end of the first Fascist decade, Ezra Pound decided to become a part of the cultural Nationalist movement in Italy. Certainly his interest in modern Italy had been building at least since his move to Italy in 1924. But by 1932, he had found a way to take his own work and make of it a contribution to Italy's endeavors to find in its past a means of invigorating its future. As he would write in the unpublished essay “Italy: The Second Decennio” (1935 or 1936), “Fascism was a fight for cultural heritage.”2 Indeed, throughout his treatments of Mussolini, Pound emphasizes the role of Italy's cultural heritage in the Fascist move to make a modern, strong nation—thereby affiliating himself with the larger Italian cultural Nationalist movement.

This chapter examines the moment at which Pound insinuated himself into that movement. I explore the scene in which Pound found himself, identifying prominent strands in the conversation to which Pound was determined to make a contribution. I examine some of the prominent figures in the cultural work that began evolving in the first decade of the Fascist regime, 1922–32, others of which will be explored in more depth in Chapter 3. This decade represented the most optimistic period for Fascist and nonpolitically aligned intellectuals alike. The regime was in flux, still determining its own direction, and eager for the input of intelligent and creative minds. Experimental artists found themselves gaining entrance to prestigious exhibitions which previously had admitted only members of an academic elite. Editors of journals received attention from the state and were asked to contribute to state-sponsored projects of cultural renewal. Art critics with political leanings found ways to use their thinking about art to reform a degenerated society. All this happened in the context of a regime that was surprisingly open to an array of artistic and philosophical approaches—less interested in controlling thought than in benefiting from its ventures, however disparate or wild.