Visual methodologies: from the poem of violence to the graphic narrative of oppression by young portuguese

Abstract

In this case study, addresses the real/imagined oppression, visually depicted, in a class of 12 girls and 5 boys,  of the 2nd cycle of basic education, coming from urban and rural milieu of Braga – Portugal, through of interdisciplinary work in Portuguese Language and Visual Education. In the first phase, in Portuguese, the discussion was of differences between a non-explicit journalistic and a poetic event, evidenced in the (visual) metaphor and implicit in the poem. The support for drawings of students was the poem by Bertolt Brecht From the river all drag / If it says is violent / But nobody says violent / The margins that compress it. On articulated, by visual methodologies (Rose, 2005), the visual images and written discourse, the authors tended to play central figures, according to gender, for portraits of coercion situations displaying his knowledge and experience. In conclusion, there were crossed points of view and were enunciated rebelliousness, disagreements between (co)protagonists (adults and classmates), with dominant negative emotions, namely, contempt, fear, guilt, retaliation/revenge, cowardice, laziness, physical discomfort grips, and impotence of younger, with complaints about the rules and prohibitions of adults, who flee and threatening to kill himself, evildoers and tell lies. In particular, the interior scenarios (family, school, the street, the urban, and rural point of view) grasped positions of authority challenged, pressures and cultural rituals (and marriage procession), with natural, figurative and symbolic elements (doors closed, sticks in the air, explosions ...). Rarely actions / interactions of protest, threat and escape, which clarify the negative stimulus of departure, are reversed in positive emotions.  The reasons attributed to the painful circumstances can be read in speech bubbles and thoughts concerning insoluble, socio-emotional, family, discipline and bullying issues. The girls draw dramatic scenes and criticism of mother figure, showing physical abuse, but use violence against boys of the school.