ABSTRACT
To write about fascism is to confront a nexus of contemporary political problems while simultaneously drawing on a collective archive of demonic images. As I write, Spielberg’s acclaimed film Schindler’s List has been heralded as a major triumph of cinematic art, unveiling as it does the fascist sensibility from a liberal Hollywood perspective. The film opened in Europe against the backdrop of a threatened renaissance of fascist and Nazi movements in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Consequently Spielberg’s movie has been seen as a timely reminder of the incomprehensible Season of Hell that Europe passed through during the middle years of the twentieth century.
