The essay analyses several excerpts from Gabriele D'Annunzio's public speeches from the period of his reign in the town of Fiume as a self-appointed dictator. The concept of the “state of exception” as explored by Giorgio Agamben and Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the carnival are applied to a reading of D'Annunzio's exercises in political rhetoric.

The essay analyses several excerpts from Gabriele D’Annunzio’s public speeches from the period of his reign in the town of Fiume as a self-appointed dictator. The concept of the “state of exception” as explored by Giorgio Agamben and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the carnival are applied to a reading of D'Annunzio’s exercises in political rhetoric.