| Abstract | This article reads the theme of the oedipal conflict between father and son in Bernardo Bertoluccís Il conformista (1970) and Strategia del ragno (1970) as an exploration of the problematic relation between Italy's post-1968 reality and its fascist past. It shows that this particular oedipal construction of the past not only disrupts the coherent national narrative of antifascism inherited from the Resistance but also allows us to observe a number of conflicts in the cultural construction of masculinity during the 1970s. The article also takes issue with the view of a conservative, patriarchal, and self-defeatist vision offered by Bertolucci, which is predominant in existing scholarship, and suggests readings of the two films that highlight the possibility of resistance and disruption.
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