Raging bodies, suspended city: Desperate giallo gestures in Gomorrah

Drawing on the notion of stasis (‘civil war’), this article offers an iconographic study of visual motifs in the TV series Gomorrah (2014–21). To explain the unique qualities of Gomorrah in the context of the Italian giallo narrative ecosystem, the study attempts to answer two basic questions: ‘what is the relationship between the images presented in Gomorrah and the Italian (and international) crime story tradition?’ and ‘in what ways do its gestural motifs of rage, despair, impotence and rebellion constitute a profound transformation of the visual codes representing crime?’ Focusing on the dual tension between international network broadcasting and the narrative space of the outskirts of Naples that informs the images in Gomorrah , this article explores the unique iconography of a neo- giallo model that involves a transformation of forms of violence in both the crime genre and the public sphere.