Ispettore Coliandro
Main character: Ispettore Marco Coliandro
Country of origin: Italy
Main location: Bologna
Creator: Carlo Lucarelli
Born in: Parma, Italy
Born on: October 26, 1960
Nationality: Italian
Literary series started in: 1991, Nikita
Original language: Italian
Publisher: Metrolibri (Bologna, Italy); Einaudi (Torino, Italy)
Number of books (original editions): 3
Latest title published in: 1994, Il giorno del lupo (Eng. transl.: The Day of the Wolf)
Translations: French
Television series started in: 2006
Producer: RAI, Italy
Number of seasons: 7
Latest season broadcast: 2018
Transnational distribution: Yes
Case study rationale:
Inspector Coliandro is the main character of a crime fiction series written by Carlo Lucarelli and adapted for television by the Manetti Bros for RAI Fiction. Coliandro is an atypical detective, who tries to act as a tough and resolute action hero when he is actually an affectionate, clumsy, and muddling detective who often finds himself involuntary involved in troubling situations on the backdrop of a multicultural, underground and noir-like Bologna. In the series, Coliandro is presented as a good-natured guy whose limited cultural means prevent him from understanding why he is often regarded by the other characters, especially women, as a sexist and even a racist. The character debuted in 1991 in the short story Nikita, published in an anthological collection of detective stories written by a group of Bolognese crime fiction authors, I delitti del Gruppo 13. A comic adaptation in five episodes was published in 1993 by Onofrio Catacchio. Lucarelli then revived the character in the novels Falange Armata (1993) and Il giorno del lupo (1994). Especially Falange Armata, with its references to the real crime events associated with the White Uno Gang, which was operating in those years in Emilia-Romagna with great media resonance, helped Coliandro consolidate his popularity and Lucarelli increase his fame as one of the most influential crime writers in Italy. In 2003, when Lucarelli was already a renowned writer of both crime novels and crime TV shows, RAI producer Tommaso Dazzi proposed to adapt Coliandro for television, engaging Lucarelli as screenwriter and direct supervisor.
Online research resources
Watch
Carlo Lucarelli talks about the intermediality of Coliandro [in Italian]:
Carlo Lucarelli talks about the intermediality of Coliandro [in Italian]:
Inspector Coliandro stereotyped comments on women in police departments, season 2, episode 1, “La pistola” [in Italian]:
Inspector Coliandro stereotyped comments on women in police departments, season 2, episode 1, “La pistola” [in Italian]:
Explore
- Map showing European Transmedia Series by Country of Origin in the Atlas section on DETECt Portal
- Map showing European Transmedia Series by Main Locations in the Atlas section on DETECt Portal
- Map showing European Transmedia Series by Original Medium and Country of Origin in the Atlas section on DETECt Portal
Read
- Boer, M.G. de. “Coliandro lult er op los: syntactische, semantische en pragmatische opmerkingen over Italiaanse taboewoorden”. Italianistica Ultraiectina 4 (2009): 337 -365.
- Chu, Mark. “Giallo sarai tu! Hegemonic representations and limits of heteroglossia in Carlo Lucarelli”. Spunti e Ricerche. Rivista d’italianistica 16 (2001): 45-58.
- Gaoheng, Zhang. “Chinese migrants and the ‘Chinese mafia’ in contemporary Italian culture”. Transcending Borders. Selected papers in East Asian studies. Ed. Valentina Pedone, Ikuko Sagiyama. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2016. 67-86.
- Maher, Brigid. “The mysterious case of theory and practice: crime fiction in collaborative translation”. The Journal of Specialised Translation 22 (July 2014): 132-146.
- Srećko, Jurišić. “Osservazioni onomastiche sul ciclo dell’ispettore Coliandro di Carlo Lucarelli”. Il Nome nel testo XIV (2012): 233-244.
- Travagliati, Greta, Matteo Treleani. “Nuove serie e nuovi eroi. Sviluppi di genere ne L’Ispettore Coliandro, Dexter e Breaking Bad”. Ocula 11 (2009).
All images and videos are copyright to their respective owners and are protected under international copyright laws.
All the images and videos on this page are not hosted on the DETECT Portal server but are only inserted as links.
