Ladrão de galinhas: a dialogue on aesthetics in the image book

Abstract

Image-driven literatures have proven, over time, to be of equal importance to other genres available in educational spaces. As such, we propose to analyze the aesthetic attributes that comprise one of these works, Ladrão de galinha (Chicken thief), written by Béatrice Rodriguez (2009), which was selected and sent by the National School Library Program (called PNBE) in 2014 to the public networks of Early Childhood Education. We adopted as methodology a qualitative approach, taking as reference Barthes’s (2013b) semiotics. We use the concepts of enunciation, displacement and representation, which contribute to the process of textual signification, understanding that they do so such that other aesthetic attributes are effective communicators in the realization of visual literature. Among the other specialists, we rely on the theoretical support of Collaro (2012), Gomes Filho (2014), Heller (2014), Hunt (2010), Kandinsky (1997), Kant (2013), Linden (2011), Neitzel and Carvalho (2013), Neitzel and Oliani (2008), Nikolajeva and Scott (2011), Santaella (2012), Todorov (2011), Willsberg and Forssman (2007). We have determined that there is a continuous effort to improve this kind of book composed exclusively of images, which allows for appreciation of the visual text beyond entertainment, making it an object of actualization through the aesthetic experience that it provides. We raise the question of “readability” in regards to the visual text so that we might accept or reject, improve or question the possibilities of reading that stimulate thought.