Corto Maltese and the process of endless semiosis

ABSTRACT

Corto Maltese from the eponymous series is usually regarded as one of the last great romantic heroes in comic books. This qualification is related to his persistent idealism. In various episodes, he typically ends up renouncing the material gains (e. g. a treasure he is after) in the name of friendship and solidarity. Corto Maltese consequently appears as a politically subversive figure, but in fact romantic individualism is an ambivalent ideology, which has developed together with – and not in opposition to – the dominant social-economic relations. The author of the article therefore proposes that we understand the subversive essence of the Corto Maltese series slightly differently, from the perspective of Deleuze-Guattarian schizophrenia, where stable structures of meaning are replaced by the world of unpredictable transitions. The analysis of the series points out the most important elements that could be understood as examples of endless semiosis.

KEYWORDS:

• Corto Maltese
• comic books
• Gilles Deleuze
• Felix Guattari
• schizophrenia
• flows of meaning

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Peter Stanković

Dr. Peter Stanković (1970) completed his MA in sociology at the Central European University in Prague (1995) and his PhD at the University of Ljubljana (1999). He works as professor at Department of Cultural Studies, University of Ljubljana. Previously, he has also lectured at the University of Primorska, Slovenia, and Alpen-Adria Universität in Klagenfurt, Austria. Currently, he is a coordinator of the Cultural and Religious Studies graduate programme and Cultural Studies PhD programme; an associate editor of Teorija in praksa journal; and member of Ekran editorial board. He is also a researcher at Centre for Cultural and Religious Studies. At the Faculty of Social Sciences, he held several organizational positions: inter alia, he was Coordinator of the Faculty Commission for Undergraduate Studies, and chaired the Department of Cultural Studies twice.

He specializes in cultural studies, film studies, popular music studies and identity politics. His recent publications include a monograph on the history of Slovenian cinematography and several articles on popular music heritage, food as a medium of cultural exchange, and mechanisms of symbolic exclusion of immigrants from the other former Yugoslav republics in Slovenia.