This article has been subjected to double blind peer review

This article has been published in: Ocula 27, Flux 2023

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

Genre Mix and Narrative Camouflage in Watchmen

language: italian

abstract: The television miniseries Watchmen (HBO, 2019) is a particularly complex narrative product. The miniseries is inspired by the graphic novel of the same title by Alan Moore and David Gibbons and was created by writer, producer, and cartoonist David Lindelof - known as co-writer and lead writer of the tv series Lost. It looks like a sequel to the Moore and Gibbons comics, and it is, as for the comics, a sci-fi uchronia. The interesting thing is that the focus of the narrative of the miniseries is based on a historical event, which really happened even if for a long time hidden, called The Tulsa Massacre (May 31- June 1, 1921). This television product, apparently attributable to the science fiction and comics genre of superheroes, actually proposes a reflection that tries to connect the past, a real historical event, to the present, to the racial problems that cross the United States. The analysis will focus on some theoretical concepts, such as narrative camouflage and genre mix, through which an attempt will be made to explain the particular narrative construction of the text and its distinctiveness.

citation information: Andrea Bernardelli, Genre Mix e Narrative Camouflage in Watchmen, "Ocula", vol.24, n.27, December 2023. DOI: 10.57576/ocula2023-6

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