One of the most acclaimed and recognized authors of contemporary TV series, David Simon is by now widely known for his ability to bring together complexity and depth – both ethical and cognitive – in his works. Although The Wire is unarguably Simon’s masterpiece, many of his works show his ambition to use fiction as a way to investigate the present. Such unique poetics clearly emerges in his HBO miniseries The Corner (2000), Generation Kill (2008) and Show me a hero (2015): in depicting and narrating the social phenomena and the significant events that characterise our present, he combines accuracy and sensitivity by means of an approach which is both journalistic and dramatic. This essay aims at demonstrating such argument through a close-up analysis of the three texts. A comparative reading will show in which way – despite the heterogeneity of themes and narrative techniques – they share the civic, social and political need to tell the truth about our contemporary world in order to change it.
David Simon (1960) è uno dei più acclamati e riconosciuti maestri della serialità televisiva contemporanea e i suoi lavori sono ormai noti per la complessità e la profondità, etica e conoscitiva, che riescono a raggiungere. Se The Wire è indiscutibilmente il suo capolavoro, tante e diverse sono le opere di Simon che rivelano l'ambizione di indagare il presente con i mezzi della fiction. In particolare, nelle tre miniserie HBO The Corner (2000), Generation Kill (2008) e Show me a hero (2015), questa peculiare poetica emerge in maniera netta: i fenomeni sociali e gli eventi significativi della nostra contemporaneità sono descritti e raccontati con rigore e sensibilità, unendo un'attitudine giornalistica a una drammatica. Questo saggio ha l'obiettivo di verificare quest'ipotesi attraverso un'analisi serrata dei tre testi. Letti in maniera comparata mostreranno, pur nella diversità dei temi e delle tecniche narrative, la necessità – civile, sociale e politica – di dire la verità sul nostro mondo contemporaneo, per cambiarlo.
Drammatizzare la verità: la poetica di David Simon in tre miniserie HBO
Marco Mongelli
2016
Abstract
One of the most acclaimed and recognized authors of contemporary TV series, David Simon is by now widely known for his ability to bring together complexity and depth – both ethical and cognitive – in his works. Although The Wire is unarguably Simon’s masterpiece, many of his works show his ambition to use fiction as a way to investigate the present. Such unique poetics clearly emerges in his HBO miniseries The Corner (2000), Generation Kill (2008) and Show me a hero (2015): in depicting and narrating the social phenomena and the significant events that characterise our present, he combines accuracy and sensitivity by means of an approach which is both journalistic and dramatic. This essay aims at demonstrating such argument through a close-up analysis of the three texts. A comparative reading will show in which way – despite the heterogeneity of themes and narrative techniques – they share the civic, social and political need to tell the truth about our contemporary world in order to change it.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
