Entre voos, imagens e gestos: representações do autismo na literatura infantil

Abstract

This dissertation critically analyzes three contemporary children's literature works — Autistas podem voar? (Nogueira, 2022), Lilás: a menina que pensava diferente (Whitcomb, 2019), and Meu amigo faz iiiii (Werner, 2022)—to investigate how these narratives contribute to the literary literacy of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), promoting inclusion, valuing diversity, and language development. The hypothesis is that children's literature can be a powerful resource for reading and subjective formation for autistic children, provided it considers aesthetic, symbolic, and representational accessibility. The adopted methodology is qualitative, focusing on critical literary analysis of the selected works in light of studies on inclusion, literacy, and children's literature. Authors such as Candido (1995), Zilberman (1995), Abramovich (1997), Parmeggiani (2018), as well as legal and educational documents like the Brazilian Inclusion Law (13.146/2015) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, were mobilized. The results show that the analyzed works address autism sensitively and antiableist, representing children with ASD as subjects of rights, imagination, and affections. The narratives foster identification, expand emotional vocabulary, and stimulate interest in books as aesthetic and communicative objects. It is concluded that literature, when approached from an inclusive perspective, has the potential to strengthen the reading formation of autistic children and contribute to building a more democratic, plural, and humane education. However, access and mediation barriers still persist, requiring public, family, and school actions to ensure the right to literature for all childhoods