Punhos e passos do homem vermelho: olhares sobre os heroísmos distópicos de Daredevil

Abstract

This thesis, which offers analyses of moments or of aspects of the narrative in the comic book Daredevil, published since 1964 by the company Marvel Comics, is structured in three analytical pivots. The first one initially aims at deepening one of the fundamental topics of the premise proposed here, the multiplicity of tones and factors found in the text and in its continuity, which claims for a reading beyond the plastered conception of the “superhero” subgenre. For such, I resort to works which look at the notion of the tragic, from classic contexts to its modern echoes, including academic sources such as Eagleton (2013) and Loraux (2007). That chapter also points towards the derivations of classic observations about heroic figures (CAMPBELL, 1953), finally bringing such notions, now adapted, to contemporary contexts, then even recurring to studies which regard the aesthetic of the Absurd, through the texts by Camus (2014) and Esslin (1973). The second chapter brings reflections about the “demonic” aspect of the protagonist, along with some about the vivid color of his outfit. This part reaches its analytical peak in the figuration of violence in the comic book; theoretical support for this segment include the texts by Chevalier & Gheerbrant (2003), Kaiser (1986), Pechman (2009) and Gomes (2012). Lastly, the focus is directed to the possible connections between the story plot and the aesthetics of the dystopic literary genre, here with adaptations regarding its repercussions in contemporary urbanity, stemming from the theories by Moylan (2013; 2016), Claeys (2013; 2017) and Tuan (2005). For the analytical process of the visual aspect, intrinsic element of the hybrid which are comic books, I chose as support the works by Eisner (2005), McCloud (1995) Barbieri (2017) and Postema (2018).