Metalanguage and intermedial experimentalism in the graphic novel “META”

Abstract

The objective of this work is to reflect on the use of intertextual, intermedial and metatextual aspects in the work of Saravá, Vigñole, Freitas and Manes, “META - Depto. de Crimes Metalinguísticos” (2020), winner of the 2021 Jabuti Award for Best Comic Book, and “META 2” (2022). These comics bring together drama, humor, experimentalism and pop culture, focusing on people's relationship with the arts. Through META, a secret police that investigates cases that occurred in different universes, with detectives who work in comics, theater, literature and cinema, the works discuss breaking the fourth wall by playing with the frontiers and transits between fiction and the world of readers. The authors play with metalanguage in a critical and expressive way, using quotations and building intertextual dialogues with national and international comic artists. The drawings and layout of the pages parody various artistic styles, constituting a stylistic and poetic exercise in narrating stories about the act of telling stories.