Misreading and reinventing in João Pinheiro´s comics

Abstract

It examines the work of Brazilian comic artist João Pinheiro, focusing on his adaptations of literary works into comics, specifically Kerouac (2011), Burroughs (2015), and Carolina (2016). The aim is to investigate how Pinheiro employs misreading (Bloom, 1995) as a tactic, deviant and creative form of cultural resistance, a kind of antidote to the anxiety of influence in the process of reinventing the biographies and works of authors such as Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Carolina Maria de Jesus. His adaptations transcend mere transcoding and become autonomous works. The method used is a critical analysis of the comics, based on theorists such as Linda Hutcheon (2013), Harold Bloom (1995), and Jorge Menna Barreto (2012), to discuss the relationship between adaptation, originality, and intertextuality. The results show that Pinheiro challenges the hierarchy between the original work and its adaptation, proposing a creative and deviant reading that reinterprets the source texts and contextualizes them within the contemporary Brazilian setting. The research concludes that Pinheiro's adaptations are a form of cultural resistance, updating and reinterpreting classic works for a new audience.