Book without words: the dissimulation in Mariana Massarani

Abstract

Recognized for her humor and/or the creation of playful and metaphorical images, an illustrator Mariana Massarani has a vast production of books for children (more than 200) as an author and illustrator in Brazil. Among them, he conceived 4 picture books on which a potent iconic vocation for “writing-illustrating” can be affirmed: Victor and the Alligator (1998), The Three Little Pigs (2013), Little Red Riding Hood (2013) and A and the Princess frog (2013). For the last three titles, by the extinct Ed. Manati, the digital version (with dialogues) was launched; The princess and the frog did not have the printed version. It is understood that the image-book has as its fundamental characteristic the primacy of the non-verbal text. This article aims to investigate the strategy used by Mariana Massarani to disguise and hide words. The methodology is based on the analysis of the drawing media, chosen by the illustrator-author as a constitutive element of the four narratives. Furthermore, we sought to reference the terminology 'book-image' from the following theoretical studies on illustrated books: Once upon a time a cover - illustrated history of children's literature (2008), by Alan Powers and Otacílio Nunes and The illustrated children's book - the art of visual narrative (2013), by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles. As a result, it was understood that the illustrator knows how to disguise by mastering color, design and visual composition and thus, certainly, promotes the aesthetic enjoyment of herself and her readers.