Abstract

This essay interrogates the representation of masculinity and investigates the gender power dynamics at work in the first season of the hit television series "Gomorra la serie". In particular, I examine bodies both on and offscreen, and question how casting, actorly transformation, makeover and under plotlines, and star publicity work to lend authenticity to onscreen bodies. In tracing the bodily mutations in "Gomorra la serie", this essay questions how men are made (and undone) in the series and evaluates what it means to be a man (and a woman) in the context of the mafia.