VERDADE E JUSTIÇA EM REINO DO AMANHÃ: A CONDUTA DO SUPER-HERÓI A PARTIR DA NOÇÃO PEIRCIANA DE CRENÇA

Abstract

This research operates in the field of academic investigations about the language of comics, more specifically, in the dialogues between intra and interlanguage signs and their consequences in the field of interpretation, in the light of Peirce's semiotics. Although mostly considered as aimed at a youyh audience, comics stirs up discussions and interpretations connected with reality and that distance them from the conception of a naive and children's literature. In 1938, with Action Comics #1, the Golden Age of comics began, establishing Superman as the first superhero to appear in this new story format. Since then, other characters have been created based on the attributes presented by Superman who, although he has undergone transformations, from visual to conceptual, he has remained faithful to his code of truth and justice. In general, this research aims to be part of investigations about the potential of comics as an object of study, contributing to its critical and theoretical development. In a specific sense, we aim to work with meanings invested in the beliefs that regulate the conduct of superheroes in the graphic novel Reino do Amanhã, by Mark Waid (script) and Alex Ross (art), published in 1996, especially regarding to the ideal of truth and justice. Bearing in mind the intertextuality relations, our investigation analyzes how this ideal and the conduct of superheroes can also be linked to the origin of the Superman character and to apocalyptic literature, more specifically the book Apocalypse of John, from the New Testament. We base ourselves, methodologically, on concepts from the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914), as well as on the notion of belief from Peirce's pragmatist philosophy, as something that guides conduct. In addition to Peirce (2003; 2008; 2017a; 2017b), we are based on scholars of his work, such as Santaella (2008a; 2008b; 2012; 2017), Nöth (2003; 2015) and Ibri (2015; 2021). In the treatment of the corpus, we delimited excerpts from the work that we considered relevant and sufficient to verify the hypothesis that Reino do Amanhã proposes a concept of superhero based on the moral values established in the Silver Age of comics. For the analysis, we considered both dialogues between verbal and non-verbal signs, as well as intertextual ones, either between texts from the language of comics itself, as is the case of the relationships between the graphic novel and other stories of the genre, or with texts external to the language of comics, such as the reference relationships between Kingdom of Tomorrow and the biblical text of the Revelation of John. This semiotic strategy allowed us to observe and analyze how the truth and justice ideals are resumed and updated in this narrative, consolidating themselves amid the defining beliefs of a moral code for Superman and, by generalization, for other superheroes. As important as the semiotic analysis were the studies on the origin and language of comics, for which we relied on Cagnin (1975), Eisner (2005), McCloud (2005), Campos (2015), Barbieri (2017) and Moreau and Machado (2020). In approaching the Age of superhero comics and the trajectory of the Superman character, we turned to Jones (2006), Knowles (2008), Morrison (2012), Weldon (2016), Reblin (2015), Robb (2017), among others. Based on the theory review and analysis performed, thesis makes it possible to follow, in the work Reino do Amanhã, a process of self-criticism and revision of beliefs and behaviors of superheroes, similar to those experienced by us, humans, and studied by Peircean theory referenced in the body of the text. We understand that the studies proposed in this thesis contribute, scientifically and theoretically, to studies on the language of comics, in addition to pointing to other perspectives of analysis of the work Reino do Amanhã, since the semiotic field allows extensive investigations about how the signs in general are perceived and produce meanings in the process of semiosis.