The Onomastics and Toponymy of Italian Crime Fiction: Eccentric Female Investigators in Eccentric Locations

Abstract

This article combines production studies and close textual reading to analyse how the relationship between the female character of the investigator and the environment takes shape in contemporary Italian TV crime dramas at two main levels: the role of fictional "onomastics" and "toponomastics" in setting up certain characteristics of characters and places that produce a specific "emotional atmosphere"; the character-environment relationship as a particularly significant node in the transnational and translocal network of exchanges at the productive, aesthetic, and narrative levels. After a general mapping that defines the relationships between investigators and the environment starting from an oppositional axis between concordance (conformity) and discordance (contrast) and identifies four types of possible narratives, the article analyses two case studies that showcase some of the most innovative trends in the Italian crime genre. The first case study is Petra Delicato in Genoa (Petra, Sky 2020-), based on the novels by Alicia Giménez Bartlett. The second case study is Teresa Battaglia in the mountain village of Travenì (Fiori sopra l’inferno – I casi di Teresa Battaglia, Rai 2023-), based on the novels by Ilaria Tuti.

Keywords

• location studies
• mediterranean noir
• country noir
• italian tv crime series
• female investigator