The Italian Graphic Novel: Reading Ourselves, Reading History

This study seeks to unravel the intricate connection between a selection of graphic novels, the moments in which they were created, and the process of weaving an Italian cultural history. It analyzes graphic novels and comics from three periods in Italian contemporary history – 1968, 1977 and 2001 – and asks how the hybrid image-text language of graphic novels might provide a unique insight into the relationship between the individual and history in contemporary Italy. More specifically, it looks at how the comic medium not only reflects or represents historical events, but effectively re-writes and re-traces them, allowing us to re-think History. Ultimately, this work reveals how the graphic novel medium has been used as an instrument in the process of weaving an Italian cultural history since 1968. Comics not only reflect the time in which they are created, either explicitly or implicitly, but also work as cultural agents in the formation and re-telling of history. Whether they attempt to speak to and for a generation seeking change and a new reality of freedom, are a means of aggressive socio- political criticism in a moment of apathy and disillusion, or a space to reflect on and work through personal and historical trauma, graphic novels are shaped by, and help to shape, our vision of ourselves and our society.Romance Languages and Literature