Esta tese está te chamando: a imprecisão e o lúdico metaficcional na literatura gráfica

Abstract

This thesis explores the characteristics of contemporary graphic literature and its postmodern aesthetic potentialities. The goal was to contribute to the studies of literary theory and criticism by broadening the perspective on the possibilities of languages in this art form – specifically, works that intertwine words, images, or other graphic elements and design. The research was guided by the following questions: How can we define a literary field that encompasses works with a predominance of visual/graphic elements, given that literary theory is predominantly focused on verbal aspects? How do postmodern characteristics, especially metafiction, manifest in this literary field? What are the aesthetic aspects and resources of metafictional graphic literature? Using a methodology that included reading and critical reflection on theoretical foundations and both national and international literary repertoires, the hypotheses were examined as follows: (1) there are literary fields that incorporate visual and graphic languages into literature, and it is therefore essential to name and conceptualize a “graphic literature”; (2) postmodern characteristics are enhanced by this literary field, with metafiction appearing in the corpus through themes, graphic style, materiality, and interactivity; and (3) the aesthetic effects of these characteristics are playfulness and imprecision, creating a shift in reader expectations through design. The concept of literature and language (Compagnon, 2022; Benjamin, 2012) was discussed, demonstrating how images have always been present in literary production – although often marginalized (Groensteen, 2009; Campos, 2015; McCloud, 2005) – and how it is possible to approach literature not as a single system, but as polysystems (Even-Zohar, 1979). Graphic literature was unveiled through the multiple semiotic modes that compose and predominate in some literary works (Kress; Leeuwen, 2001; Hallet, 2018; Gibbons, 2015) to think about literary fields (or languages), with emphasis on two groups of graphic literature: picturebooks (Linden, 2011; Nikolajeva; Scott, 2011) and comics (Postema, 2018; Eisner, 2010). Postmodernity (Hutcheon, 1991; Sipe; Pantaleo, 2008) was reflected upon as a set of characteristics amplified by graphic literature, which achieves its literariness through design (Villas-Boas, 2017; Munari, 2024; Lartitegui, 2023). The concept of metafiction (Hutcheon, 1980; Waugh, 1984; Silva-Diaz, 2018) was also explored, proposing that it reveals itself in graphic literature through thematic, graphic style, materiality, and interactivity, resulting in aesthetic resources such as playfulness and imprecision (Huizinga, 2019), in a graphic project that is also a metafictional key. The corpus of the research consists of exemplary works of a metafictional approach at the (un)limits of languages: A bola amarela (2017) by Daniel Fehr and Bernardo P.; Meta – Depto. de Crimes Metalinguísticos (2020) by Marcelo Saravá and André Freitas; Bibi (2019) by Gustavo Piqueira; and Chopsticks (2012) by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. These works, by breaking with traditional narrative languages, create metafictional experiences that destabilize reader expectations. It was concluded that graphic literature, due to its intrinsic multimodal nature and marginalized history, enhances postmodern characteristics, with metafiction being one of the main ways to push boundaries and subvert literary traditions