Metáfora, integração conceptual e multidisciplinaridade: história da pandemia de Covid-19 no Brasil pela perspectiva de Ulisses Araújo

Abstract

This study investigated 20 cartoons produced by illustrator and cartoonist Ulisses Araújo. The works were published via the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook between April 5, 2020, and November 22, 2021, and sought to denounce the denialist and anti-scientific stance of the Bolsonaro government throughout the pandemic. Therefore, we sought to construct a multidisciplinary study, grounded in the foundations of the central theoretical framework  Cognitive Linguistics  in particular, the Theory of Conceptual Integration (Fauconnier; Turner, 2002), Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff; Johnson, 2002 [1980]), and Multimodality (Forceville, 2008 [1996]), in addition to other analytical approaches related to meaning-making, and from related areas of study such as Political Science, History, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Art, based on authors working within the Human Sciences. It is assumed that the confluence of these theoretical areas is key to understanding the phenomena of signification, especially when dealing with pictorial and multimodal genres. Based on a consistent study supported by scientific and anti-essentialist thinking, it was possible to outline the main considerations regarding the investigation: (1) the conceptualization of cartoons occurs through global insight, given the perceptual immediacy of target and source; (2) multimodal and pictorial genres allow for broader transcultural access, as they are more easily recognized without necessarily relying on a linguistic code; (3) there is a complex cognitive-conceptual structure underlying the construction of meanings, in which conceptual metaphors are established through Conceptual Integration networks; (4) regarding the notion of perspective, cartoons accentuate the communicative intention of the producer and reinforce the ideological positions conveyed; (5) based on a cross-sectional analysis within the thematic axes, the most activated FRAMES were COVID-19, DENIALISM, FAKE NEWS, PANDEMIC, CONTAMINATION, FEAR, ANTI-SCIENCE, BRAZIL, IDEOLOGY, PUBLIC HEALTH, DEATH, and GOVERNMENT; (6) within the Conceptual Integration networks, the predominant ANALOGIES were established through ROLE-VALUE, REPRESENTATION, PART-WHOLE, DISANALOGY, CAUSE-EFFECT, IDENTITY and SINGULARITY; (7) the objective of the cartoons is to expose current ideologies and the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic relations present in society, with an argumentative purpose grounded in denunciation and social criticism; (8) the conception of the works is based on humor, which, in these examples, is linked to the tragicomic, used as a form of social criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic; and (9) regarding morality, it is essential to (re)think society, history, and the works produced over time, because the cycle of social change transforms the understanding of morality, often delegating to emerging political polarizations the “right” to judge what is (or is not) considered moral within society