Abstract

The study analyses urban spaces and narrative cartographies from the Zero Years to today, and proposes a distinction between places, backdrops and postcards. The last are the transnational and surrogate scenarios of the global novel, recognizable by any world reader, who identifies with them. The backdrops are not totally substitutable, the action could be placed only there, but only fragile narrative traces allow a precise localization, although tending towards the supranational. The places in the strong sense, however, are one of the protagonists of the novel, are the spaces – real or imaginary – in which the story is born, lives and breathes.