Grown up boyz and girlz. Italian graphic novelists’ trans-European paths and gendered representations

Abstract

Encouraged by a growing tendency towards international training and education as well as by the precarity that dominates artistic production in Italy, Italian comics artists are the protagonists of a diaspora as they emigrate to other European countries. This article investigates the effects of migration and geographical in-betweenness on the work of two Italian graphic novelists, Nicoz Balboa and Alice Socal, whose texts feature explicitly gendered representations. A hybrid methodology is employed, combining textual analysis supported by a nomadic feminist theoretical framework with semi-structured interviews with the authors. The article argues that Balboa and Socal inhabit a ‘diasporic space’ both as artists and individuals. This space is characterised by the constant contestation of socio-cultural boundaries and divisions. Furthermore, the gendered representations delineated by these authors systematically interrogate the inflexible binarisms imposed by the patriarchal socio-cultural order. These interrogations extend beyond gender boundaries, challenging the rigid dichotomy that separates youth from adulthood.