Poética da tira – uma análise da construção ficcional da tira a partir de seu formato

Abstract

This work aims to explore a poetics of the comic strip, observing, primarily, how the construction of its fictional world occurs through procedures that are unique to its synthetic format. In this sense, our reflection on the poetics of the comic strip is also a reflection on the poetics of its format, given that its succinct and brief nature becomes a central and empowering aspect of the comic strip's resources. For the analysis, poetics was considered a reflection that is not prescriptive about the works, but rather a way of understanding how the comic strip articulates its elements to construct its narrative universe, based on the observation of singular works. We then randomly selected comic strips, from different genres, mostly published in series, and observed how the composition of their fictional universes arises from the brevity demanded by the format. This study thus aims to contribute to the field of comics studies by developing critical tools capable of addressing its diverse genres, considering as a common element the unique characteristics of the format and the way each work draws on these elements. To delimit the concept of poetics, based on Aristotle's Poetics, the research was built upon the formulations of Ducrot and Todorov (2001), in conjunction with the reflections of Meschonnic (1983) and Ricœur (2023) on the implications and difficulties of thinking about a poetics for works. Subsequently, this study, following the studies of Ramos (2017), sought to discuss the concepts of comic strip and their distinctions, approaches and possible weaknesses. Having established the concepts of poetics and the comic strip, the research then attempted to develop how format and repetition are fundamental elements in the construction of its narrative universe, initially drawing on essays by Eco (1970) and Leite (1995) on Charles Schulz's Peanuts and George Herriman's Krazy Kat, respectively. These authors' reflections were expanded beyond these series, as we believe that their writings offer insights into characteristics that are broadly representative of comic strips in general. Following this, we discuss the relationship between the comic strip and the products of mass culture, as well as the procedures that are commonly shared between them. Thus, we present the concept of the comic strip's instant, based on Eco's (2005) analyses of mass culture. In this sense, the moment depicted in the comic strip, in summary, is the narrative moment familiar to the reader, in which they return to the fictional universe through recognition. Towards the end, we further examined the relationships between the comic strip and short narratives, such as the short story and the micro-story, particularly drawing on the work of Cortázar (2019) e Zavala (2006). As a result, it was observed that the comic strips find their greatest potency in their limiting form, due to their profoundly synthetic nature, which demands total investment from the strip's narrative at any given moment. Also contributing to this study are the writings of scholars in the field of comics studies such as Beaty (2012), Cirne (1970), García (2012), Groensteen (2015), Harvey (1998), Hatfield (2010), Rodrigues (2021), among others.