IMAGES FROM MEU PÉ DE LARANJA LIMA (1968): THE RECREATION OF JOSÉ MAURO VASCONCELOS' ROMANCE FOR THE COMIC UNIVERSE

• Grant number: 25/03543-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Educational Teaching and Learning
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Teixeira Luiz
• Grantee: Lara Luisa Oliveira Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the process of adapting the novel O meu pé de Laranja Lima (1968), by José Mauro de Vasconcelos (1920-1984), to the syncretic universe of comics, in 2020, by the hands of screenwriter Luiz Antônio Aguiar. Strictly speaking, the work seeks to describe, analyze and problematize one of the book's reinterpretations with the purpose of investigating how the child character - Zezé, the protagonist of the novel - was revisited by contemporary national comics. In this sense, we opted for a qualitative-based methodological approach, with an emphasis on documentary analysis. To this end, research is based on contemporary conceptions about visual text and its relevance in the process of training readers, in line with semiotic and pedagogical studies on the transposition of literature to comics media, highlighting the journey - from the verbal to the visual field - of the little hero Zezé and his greatest confidant, Minguinho, the orange tree. To support this proposal, the contributions of Cagnin (1975), Luyten (1987), Barbieri (1991) and Clüver (2006) will be used, in addition to studies on reading, literature and literacy written by Citelli (1998), Trevisan (2000), Cosson (2006) and, above all, Candido (1995). In this sense, with the aim of verifying how the child's voice was reconstructed in the adaptation - and how the cartoonist dialogues with Vasconcelos' writing - only one (01) chapter will be chosen, of significant relevance to the plot, which will serve as an object of investigation to be observed, discussed and examined, according to the theoretical guidelines announced above. Furthermore, it is a scientific investigation, with a qualitative focus, focused on the analytical treatment of a production marked by verbal-visual language, material easily accessible among teenagers. (AU)