Valentina Mela Verde. Grazia Nidasio tra adolescenza, costume e contestazione

Abstract

In 1969 Grazia Nidasio's Valentina Mela Verde appeared in the children's magazine Corriere dei Piccoli. Valentina's adventures give a realistic picture of the “typical" bourgeoisie family, while also portraying the world outside, as well as the Sixties’ yearning for renovation that exploded in the following decade. The author narrates controversial events with perspicacity and sensitivity, tackling topical adolescent issues, or more pressing themes such as the economic crisis, the pacifist movement, youth counter culture, providing a female, ironical and intriguing view of the world of cartoon strips, hitherto dominated by men. The essay aims to reveal the cultural and ‘post-modernist complexity of Nidasio's work combining text and illustrations. Her stories are not commonplace homilies, although they always contain an ‘edifying element and problems are portrayed in a sugar coated manner. They are, in fact, comics with real 'life' in them, and the proposed solutions reveal the need to go (just a bit) “against the flow".