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This paper considers the 1934 experimental radio work In Linea by Livio Castiglioni and Renato Castellani. A sound-collage characterized by an abstract approach to combining music and noise, In Linea nevertheless offered listeners a clear metaphor for fascist political education. The play’s three sections move from a dark, noisy chaos, within which arises an anxious, belligerent crowd that can be calmed only by a clear, authoritative voice offering a new path forward. At the heart of In Linea is a fervent belief in the power of the authoritative radiophonic voice. This paper examines the nature of this voice on the radio, asking what it meant to represent the most controversial and powerful radio voice of all – the voice of Mussolini himself. The stakes of such a representation cannot be overstated, given that radio broadcasts of the Duce’s speeches were the primary way that most Italians listened to and engaged with their heroic leader. This paper argues that the persistent focus on Mussolini’s image has led scholars to disregard the symbolic power held by the dictator’s voice, a voice that was both magnified and transformed through its transmission over the radio.

“The revolution of a planet can only be seen from another” said the famous writer and biographer Emil Ludwig, who conversed with Mussolini in the famous Colloqui. By this, he meant that geographical distance made it easier to understand a phenomenon. In the case of interwar France and fascism, nothing is less certain. This paper aims to answer this question by shifting or clarifying the focus of analysis: by choosing a coherent corpus that facilitates methodological reflection: the French cultural journals, which were different from the press, more prone to the vertigo of the moment, and offered polished approaches, often from illustrious writers who took the time for deeper analysis. We also examine the figure of Mussolini, who took on three roles, three “characters”: the man, the leader – with the question of charisma and political seduction – and the very face of fascism, its quintessence, with whom he seemed to merge, source of much debate.This article discusses the effects of sources and editorial strategies in cultural journals. More than ever before, the Janus figure, so conventional and recurrent when it came to Mussolini, was unavoidable.