Fazenda do veigas: uma história em quadrinhos

Abstract

The present dissertation is produced inside an area of concentration in the Humanities still incipient in Brazil Creative Writing. Although the works produced in this area are usually short stories, novels, and plays, this dissertation presents the script of a graphic novel. The fiction is called Fazenda do Viegas [Viegas‟ Farm], it has 144 pages and deals with the relationship between, on the one side, the professional photographers who were born and live in Rio de Janeiro‟s favelas (slums), usual figures of the beginning of the 21th Century, and, on the other side, the traveling artists who, especially those in the 19th Century, portrayed Brazilian geography and culture through paintings and drawings. The investigation of the link between these two sets of characters occurs through the diegetic world of fiction, not only by the plot, but also by the setting. The reader follows the story of Éder, a photographer from the margins of the society whose dream is to transform the Fazenda do Viegas a historical site of Brazil, nowadays occupied by drug dealers and surrounded by a slum in a cultural center for his community. Éder wants to start this work by organizing an exposition of the French artist Jean-Baptiste Debret, who lived in Brazil between 1816 and 1831, and produced several drawings portraying the daily routine of the slaves. To achieve this, Éder needs to talk to the chief of the drug traffic, asking his authorization to use the space. Meanwhile, one of his photography students takes a picture of a drug dealer: this picture, added to a sudden police raid in the slum, cause narrative happenings which raise reflections on the relationship between art and violence, History of Brazil and the margins of the society. Besides the drawings, the comic uses hybrid elements, like paintings, sketches and photographs. In addition, this dissertation presents some notes and commentaries made during the process of writing the plot, as well as drawings of artist Bruno Ortiz showing the process of creating a graphic novel. Furthermore, two theoretical essays are included: the first scrutinizes the steps on the elaboration of the fictional work, and the second deals with the relations between photography and graphic novels.