Understanding the non-visible: an invitation to read images and imaginaries in comic strips

Abstract

Comic strips belong to the media domain as a genre originating from the hypergenre comic (RAMOS, 2009a, 2009b). It is a flexible verbal-visual production, not rarely just non-verbal, which can be an asset in a classroom by actively mobilizing imagery resources and knowledge of the world. According to Charaudeau (2013b), the visual text seems to be deciphered naturally and does not require systematic learning. However, it requires specific knowledge and belief to construct its meaning. Assuming that knowledge builds socio-discursive imaginaries implicit in representations and mediated by language (CHARAUDEAU, 2007, 2013a), this paper investigates its impacts on the process of interpretation/understanding of “mute” comic strips (POSTEMA, 2018) created by Brazilian cartoonists Laerte Coutinho and Alexandre Beck. Through corpus description and analysis, it was possible to present the importance of the interdiscursive inferential process, which reveals socio-discursive imaginaries that constitute the text, related to the purpose of capturing the reader to a particular point of view. We hope to provide subsidies to support training strategies for more competent readers capable to articulate, semantically, visible and non-visible into texts.