A GLANCE OVER PICTUREBOOKS

A PHENOMENOLOGYCAL READING OF LULU E O URSO AND LÁ E AQUI, BY CAROLINA MOREYRA AND ODILON MORAES

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss specificities of picturebooks, putting light on the way it works and its main characteristics.  Based on the phenomenological Reading of Lulu e o urso e Lá e aqui [Lulu and the bear and There and here], by Carolina Moreyra and Odilon Moraes, whose joint work counts already with 9 books. Their joint production involves, in different ways, what is most grand from the smallest, from details, from small – or big – things that compose our daily life.  Both autors profoundly know how picturebook works and know that its construction is made of fragments and silence, and this made evident in the harmony present in their books. The pair is a good example that this book is not made only of the dialogue between words and images. They make clear that image and word are in relation not only in each spread but also in all the sequence of double pages imposed by the book. They also make clear that it is necessary for the reader to turn the pages and out together the pieces that are offered to them as fragments during the reading to create meaning. With each new production it becomes clearer that Carolina  Moreyra and Odilon Moraes’ books are essentially metalinguistic and, among so many other layers, their books also discuss the book itself and reading, as well as the place that readers occupy and their fundamental role in reconstructing the narrative.