Between Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Race, Genre, and Politics in Summertime and Zero

Abstract

Italian media depictions of Black and brown bodies tend to be split into two opposing types. On the one hand, in images and stories about immigration, which are ubiquitous in the news and within national consciousness, these bodies have become hypervisible. On the other hand, these stories often neglect the quotidian realities that many children of immigrants face, particularly in terms of their lack of citizenship, which leaves the plight of second-generation Italians invisible. A similar pattern of invisibility is evident in Italian film and television, where Black protagonists have long been absent. At the time of their releases, the Netflix series Summertime and Zero offered intriguing possibilities for the representation of race, approaching the issues of hypervisibility and invisibility and exploring the tensions between these extremes through the protagonists and narratives at their heart. Through a comparative analysis of these two series informed by postcolonial, critical race, and film theories, I ask what it means that Summertime, a show that conforms to norms regarding race, genre, and politics, was renewed for three seasons, whereas Zero was canceled after only one season—despite its offering a more nuanced representation of being Black in Italy. I argue that the latter show was canceled precisely because it failed to calm social fears about race.