Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to question and challenge the current way in which the architectural history of the early 20th century is written in Norway by looking for a presence of Fascist Italian architecture in the contemporary journals of architecture. These journals were the main medium through which architects established a national discourse on architecture and will, therefore, be revealing as to the degree which Fascist Italy had a presence. Scholarship surrounding fascist architecture in a national context has existed for a long time, however little is known about the perception of fascist architecture abroad. Informed by insights gained from transnational history writing, I look at how fascist architecture was perceived, discussed and possibly acculturated in Norway between 1922 when the first fascist dictatorship took power in Europe, and 1939, before Nazi Germany and its Axis partners unleased World War II. My aim is that finding and discussing a connection between a hitherto unmentioned contact between Norway and Italy will challenge the conventional history of interwar Norwegian architecture and open the field for further transnational studies of the transfer of cultural phenomena such as architecture in the periphery.