Chico Bento and the social representations of childhood

Résumé

ABSTRACT. The visual records, and the discourses they transmit, or that emit them, generate social readings and contribute to the construction of a collective imaginary. This article proposes to accomplish a reflection about the imaginary in function of the subjects who live in the countryside, more specifically children and rural children, through one of the main symbols of representation of the Brazilian peasant child, the character of Chico Bento, created by the cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa. It is observed that this visual production, produced in the urban context and addressed especially to the inhabitants of the city, often (re)produces discourses about the peasantry and its subject and its subjects permeated by stereotypes and prejudices. In this case, it is considered that the imagistic cultural production has great relevance in the construction of the look and the social reading that is directed to it.