La provincia e la periferia: tecniche e strumenti per raccontare lo spazio marginale nel fumetto italiano contemporaneo = The province and the periphery: techniques and tools for narrating the marginal space in contemporary Italian comics

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze how the centrality of marginal spaces such as the province and the periphery is realized in contemporary Italian comics through the discussion of three case studies: Non mi posso lamentare by Paolo Cattaneo (2019), Malibu by Eliana Albertini (2019), and Padovaland by Miguel Vila (2020). After a brief historical contextualization, some of the main approaches to spatiality in comics will be illustrated, a complex and layered aspect of this multimodal medium. This will be followed by an introduction to the three selected comics, the stories they tell and the relationship they establish with the different Italian territorial realities they refer to. Finally, the analysis will be conducted, trying to take into consideration all the aspects related to spatiality, whether these are the graphic and drawing style or the mise en page and the layout, without ever disregarding the narrative dimension. It will be conducted a medium-specific analysis which will allow for the identification and discussion of the techniques through which the focusing of marginal spaces is achieved within some contemporary Italian comics.