Identidad nacional en Blacksad mediante la cultura marítima: análisis sobre las influencias del Atlántico y el Mediterráneo: LINEBMLCM

Abstract

National identity in Blacksad through maritime culture: analysis on the influences of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean: LINEBMLCM

Since its origins, the noir-criminal genre has produced debate on the national question in its narrative. Developed in the United States after the war, its adaptation to the european market led to the copy of american affairs, although it soon wanted to incorporate national themes. The debate continues to this day, and the Blacksad comic is proof of this. By spanish authors, published in the french-belgian market, and characterized as north american hard-boiled fiction, the discussion generated deals with their affiliation to one or another culture. In order to provide new perspectives, we want to incorporate recent studies on the mediterranean black novel into the narrative in Blacksad, to consider where the gaze of the character and its authors points. For this reason, our analysis consists of exposing the state of the question on the debate instituted around the comic, and inquiring into the cultural aspects that have determined its character, as it is a product where three different aspects converge. The three societies present in the discussion, in turn, are conditioned by thoughts born from looking towards the sea, being able to distinguish the influence of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, which bathe the countries in ideological brawl: The United States with respect to the first; France and Spain for the second. Each one has developed a different line towards the genre that concerns us, the noir-criminal narrative, and although no one denies the birth of this literature by the north american hard-boiled, nor the influence of the french market to revive the genre even towards new media, such as comics, Spain seems to lose importance in the matter. The appearance of the previously mentioned mediterranean black novel offers new arguments to outline the treatment of culture in the work, which will be analyzed by referring to works consecrated in this narrative, with the goal of estimating to what extent the national and the homeland in the Blacksad series, more specifically, in the works included in his “color cycle”. In these comics, the plots derive from essential issues of the genre in its american aspect, but the treatment and character coincide with attitudes presented in the mediterranean narrative, which arose in response to the stereotypes of the genre. For this reason, the germ to debate about the homeland of the work is developed through examples, which rekindle the debate beyond propaganda, and allows us to delimit the extent to which the importance of culture, original and acquired, influences artistic creation and literature.