The body as country: gender and politics in the work of Laerte Coutinho

Abstract

The objective of the work is to follow the production of the cartoonist Laerte Coutinho in the most diverse phases, having as a central focus the issues of gender and politics. Her multiple aspects and facets will be presented, from the union collaboration, the militancy in the Brazilian Communist Party and the decisive contribution in the magazines "Chiclete com Banana" and "Piratas do Tietê". The research seeks to follow the artist's turn from 2004 to 2016 to accompany the questioning in relation to the genre itself, which took place together with transformations in the way of producing comics, where a greater political and reflexive engagement stands out. The methodology adopts critical discourse analysis, beyond the textual, deserving attention the imagetic components, not only the cartoons themselves, but the traces of identity and gender performance inscribed in the works.