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author: Andrea Bernardelli (Dipartimento di filosofia, scienze sociali, umane e della formazione, Università di Perugia (IT))

Realism and Melodrama in Gomorrah

language: italian

abstract: The new protagonists of TV series, in recent years productions, are not any more “heroes without blemish and without fear”, but “complex” antiheroes. They are characters more and more realistic. This effect is obtained through the fictional representation of their particularly cruel and immoral behaviors. But which kind of narrative devices allows the viewer to stand and accept the wrong behaviors of these rough characters? This essay will start from Margrethe Bruun Vaage’s (2013) thesis, trying to show how the dialectics between realistic narrative content and a fictional (melodramatic) way of representation could be the key concept to understand the viewer’s engagement. That is, the principal aim of the essay is to outline how viewers engage with the protagonists of strongly realistic, uncanny and disturbing TV series. The Italian TV series "Gomorra" will be taken into account as a specific case-study. As a matter of fact, this TV series has been widely criticized specifically for its strong and almost disturbing realism.

citation information: Andrea Bernardelli, Melodramma e realismo in Gomorra. La serie, "Ocula", vol.18, November 2017. DOI: 10.12977/ocula85

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