A Third Space: Corto Maltese in Africa

Otherness and the Ethics of Encounter in Hugo Pratt

Abstract

This article examines the representation of alterity in Hugo Pratt’s comic collection Le Etiopiche. The analysis moves along a dual theoretical axis: on the one hand, imagology, which examines stereotyped images of the Other in literary texts as ideological and cultural constructs; on the other, postcolonialism, which deconstructs the power dynamics embedded in colonial representations, drawing on the works of Edward Said and Homi Bhabha. Le Etiopiche by Hugo Pratt escape the exoticizing stereotypes of the European comic tradition, offering instead a plural and complex portrayal of African identity. African characters—from Cush to the sorcerer Shamael and the Leopard Men—are no longer mere side figures, but subjects who carry memory, spirituality, and resistance. Special attention is given to clothing and visual language as cultural codes that convey belonging and relational dynamics. Le Etiopiche present themselves as a transcultural laboratory and a narrative reflection the decolonization of the imaginary, interrogating—without idealizing—the possibility of an ethics based on respect and mutual listening. Pratt’s work thus emerges as a pioneering example of postcolonial graphic literature, where the representation of alterity becomes a critical, aesthetic and political act.