MORTE E VIDA SEVERINA IN COMIC BOOK FORM

A READING OF THE ADAPTATIONS BY MIGUEL FALCÃO (2009) AND ODYR BERNARDI (2024)

Abstract

In the context of the cultural industry and mass culture, the processes involved in adapting literary classics are an important means of disseminating and democratizing acess to canonical Literature with a capital “L” as pointed out by Márcia Abreu (2006). In this sense, the main objective of this article is to analyze two comic book adaptations of the poetic work “Morte e Vida Severina”, by João Cabral de Melo Neto. During the analysis, we noticed that the first comic book, by Miguel Falcão (2009), constructs a plot very close to João Cabral's work, with transcriptions of the written text and black and white illustrations, with a strong graphic appeal focused mainly on the symbolic construction of Morte Severina. The second, by Odyr Bernardi (2024), is more flexible in its approach to the text and adds colorful illustrations, which resemble paintings through the use of watercolor techniques, bringing a context that reinterprets the traditional Severina death: the COVID-19 pandemic. Both adaptations, through the language of comics, emancipate the written word and construct meaning through through the language of comics of verbal and visual elements, promoting visual elements that share fundamental aspects of the adapted work: the journey of the migrant sertanejo.