Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ITACOMICS (From Dale Arden to Valentina. Americanisation and gender representation in Italian comics, 1934-1965.)
Período documentado: 2023-09-11 hasta 2025-09-10
Comics are a powerful medium and expression of popular culture, capable of shaping and reflecting perceptions of identity and society. In 1930s Italy, American adventure comics entered the national publishing landscape and quickly became part of Italian popular culture, as well as a good consumed daily. With their widespread distribution and appeal to younger audiences, they played a key role in introducing American values, aesthetics, and gender roles into Italian culture — even under the Fascist regime, which aimed to mould Italian society according to its own values.
The ITACOMICS project investigates how Italian comics evolved from 1934, when American comics were first introduced, through to 1965, when Valentina, a groundbreaking female-centred comic, was launched. By analysing key examples of comics from the Fascist period, the post-war years, and the era of the economic boom, the project explores how gender norms and transnational cultural exchange were negotiated and reshaped through visual storytelling.
ITACOMICS offers an innovative cultural history of Italian comics, showing how American influences were not passively received but creatively adapted within a changing political and social context. The project highlights how comics reflected broader transformations — from dictatorship to democracy — and how they contributed to constructing ideas of masculinity, femininity, and national identity.
This research provides new insight into the cross-cultural nature of comics and sheds light on a crucial yet understudied aspect of modern Italian culture. By reassessing the impact of American models and the specificity of the Italian context, ITACOMICS challenges dominant Anglophone perspectives and enriches our understanding of transnational media flows in the 20th century.
The ITACOMICS project investigates how Italian comics evolved from 1934, when American comics were first introduced, through to 1965, when Valentina, a groundbreaking female-centred comic, was launched. By analysing key examples of comics from the Fascist period, the post-war years, and the era of the economic boom, the project explores how gender norms and transnational cultural exchange were negotiated and reshaped through visual storytelling.
ITACOMICS offers an innovative cultural history of Italian comics, showing how American influences were not passively received but creatively adapted within a changing political and social context. The project highlights how comics reflected broader transformations — from dictatorship to democracy — and how they contributed to constructing ideas of masculinity, femininity, and national identity.
This research provides new insight into the cross-cultural nature of comics and sheds light on a crucial yet understudied aspect of modern Italian culture. By reassessing the impact of American models and the specificity of the Italian context, ITACOMICS challenges dominant Anglophone perspectives and enriches our understanding of transnational media flows in the 20th century.
During the Fellowship, I conducted extensive research on the role of comics in shaping and reflecting gender norms in Italy. Under the supervision of Prof. Maaheen Ahmed and mentorship of Prof. Clodagh Brook, I established a feminist analytical framework that integrates socio-cultural, visual, and narrative approaches with an intermedial perspective, providing a novel methodology for the study of Italian comics.
The project’s research activities resulted in three major thematic strands:
1. Representation of gender in Italian comics, including a study of the witch trope and depictions of gendered violence, which led to a peer-reviewed book chapter, a journal article (under review) and a special issue (in the peer-review stage).
2. Analysis of the “jungle girl” figure, addressing post-war gender representation, American cultural influence, and Italian socio-political contexts. This line of research has produced a peer-reviewed journal article (in peer-review) and a book proposal.
3. Development of an intermedial approach to comics analysis during the secondment at Trinity College Dublin, resulting in an article currently in final revisions.
In addition, training in Digital Humanities supported the design of a quantitative model for assessing the male gaze in comics presented at three international conferences and currently being prepared for publication.
The outcomes of the project include multiple peer-reviewed publications (published or under review), three forthcoming special issue and the establishment of a robust transnational network of scholars and artists across Belgium, Ireland, and Italy.
The project’s research activities resulted in three major thematic strands:
1. Representation of gender in Italian comics, including a study of the witch trope and depictions of gendered violence, which led to a peer-reviewed book chapter, a journal article (under review) and a special issue (in the peer-review stage).
2. Analysis of the “jungle girl” figure, addressing post-war gender representation, American cultural influence, and Italian socio-political contexts. This line of research has produced a peer-reviewed journal article (in peer-review) and a book proposal.
3. Development of an intermedial approach to comics analysis during the secondment at Trinity College Dublin, resulting in an article currently in final revisions.
In addition, training in Digital Humanities supported the design of a quantitative model for assessing the male gaze in comics presented at three international conferences and currently being prepared for publication.
The outcomes of the project include multiple peer-reviewed publications (published or under review), three forthcoming special issue and the establishment of a robust transnational network of scholars and artists across Belgium, Ireland, and Italy.
The research carried out during the Fellowship has produced significant results in understanding how Italian popular comics contributed to shaping and challenging gender norms while reflecting transnational cultural exchanges with the United States. The project established a robust feminist and intermedial methodological framework that can be adopted for further comparative studies across European and transnational contexts.
Key results include:
- The development of a feminist theoretical framework for comics analysis and its application to Italian case studies.
- The introduction of an intermedial approach to studying visual and narrative structures in comics, tested through archival and textual analysis.
- The design of a quantitative model for assessing the male gaze in comics, a tool with potential applications beyond comics studies (e.g. media, visual culture, and gender analysis).
- Peer-reviewed outputs in progress, including journal articles, and three co-edited special issues, as well as a book proposal to be submitted in early 2026.
The project’s findings have broader societal and academic impacts. By demonstrating how comics disseminate and contest gendered ideologies, ITACOMICS contributes to current European priorities promoting equality, critical cultural awareness, and democratic engagement. Its open-access dissemination plan ensures that results are accessible to both academic and non-academic audiences, including educators, cultural institutions, and policymakers interested in gender representation in popular culture.
To ensure further uptake and success, future research will build on the methodological and quantitative tools developed during the Fellowship. Priorities include expanding the quantitative model of the male gaze through interdisciplinary collaboration and digital resources, strengthening international partnerships, and securing further funding (e.g. ERC Starting or Consolidator Grant) to consolidate the project into a wider research programme on gender and transnational culture in comics.
Key results include:
- The development of a feminist theoretical framework for comics analysis and its application to Italian case studies.
- The introduction of an intermedial approach to studying visual and narrative structures in comics, tested through archival and textual analysis.
- The design of a quantitative model for assessing the male gaze in comics, a tool with potential applications beyond comics studies (e.g. media, visual culture, and gender analysis).
- Peer-reviewed outputs in progress, including journal articles, and three co-edited special issues, as well as a book proposal to be submitted in early 2026.
The project’s findings have broader societal and academic impacts. By demonstrating how comics disseminate and contest gendered ideologies, ITACOMICS contributes to current European priorities promoting equality, critical cultural awareness, and democratic engagement. Its open-access dissemination plan ensures that results are accessible to both academic and non-academic audiences, including educators, cultural institutions, and policymakers interested in gender representation in popular culture.
To ensure further uptake and success, future research will build on the methodological and quantitative tools developed during the Fellowship. Priorities include expanding the quantitative model of the male gaze through interdisciplinary collaboration and digital resources, strengthening international partnerships, and securing further funding (e.g. ERC Starting or Consolidator Grant) to consolidate the project into a wider research programme on gender and transnational culture in comics.