The Voices in the Marginalias of Fantoches

Verbal and Imagectic Clothing by Erico Verissimo

Abstract

Author of a range of works, especially novels and other narratives, Erico Verissimo does not abstain from creativity at the time of writing. What may also surprise some of his readers is his habit of making non-verbal records, such as caricatures of his characters and other imagistic representations related to his works. The edition of Fantoches (1972), which commemorates the 40th anniversary of the publication of this book, which was his first, is a fitting example of this. Thus, this work, formed by a series of small narratives, many of them plays, provides the corpus for the studies proposed here, since it is intended to analyze the verbal and non-verbal manuscript records made by the author himself and confirm his own criticism of his own productions. To that end, the analyses are based on Bordini’s (1995) studies of literary criticism, as well as on verbal and nonverbal theories by Ackerman (2014) and Aurouet (2014), and the first volume of the book Solo de Clarineta: Memórias (2005), also by Verissimo. Self-critical as he is, Erico Verissimo allows us to make inferences about the fact that the publication of a work does not mean that there is no possibility of later additions, which in the analyzed edition of Fantoches (1972) leaves room for many perceptions regarding the different voices also found in the marginalia of the book, added by the author through drawings and verbal observations.