FROM WORD TO IMAGE: ALEXANDRE E OUTROS HERÓIS AND VIOLEIRO DO SERTÃO

Abstract

This article analyzes, from a comparative perspective, the relationships between Alexandre e outros heróis, by Graciliano Ramos, and the painting Violeiro do Sertão (2010), by Léo Costa, with the aim of understanding how both works construct and represent the reality of the Brazilian backlands. It is based on the hypothesis that, although literature and painting operate through distinct semiotic systems, it is possible to identify zones of resonance between them, particularly in the representation of poverty, rural sociability, and decadence. In Graciliano Ramos’s work, the protagonist discursively re-elaborates his trajectory through fabulation, constructing a memory marked by exaggeration and by an attempt to symbolically compensate for material, social, and physical loss. In Léo Costa’s painting, in turn, the precariousness of backlands experience is conveyed through the materiality of the scene, the configuration of domestic space, and the silent arrangement of the characters. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, analytical, and bibliographic study grounded in comparative and interarts studies, supported by the theoretical contributions of Carvalhal (2006), Praz (1982), Cristóvão (1977), Gimenez (2004), and Pellegrini (2003). The analysis shows that both works converge in the construction of a shared social experience, although they represent it through different means, highlighting the tension between narrative fabulation and visual materiality.