Utopia, Heterotopia, Dystopia – Water in Portuguese and Brazilian comics

Abstract

The article tends to analyze several comics from the Portuguese-speaking world regarding the symbolic functions of water within the stories. Therefore, the text picks on the ideas of the Brazilian philosopher Vilém Flusser about mutual interference of nature and culture, combining it with the theory of Foucault’s heterotopias and Deleuze’s and Guattari’s ideas on smooth and striated spaces. The question on the different functions of water is raised, depending on its appearance as rain or ocean. Furthermore, it will be discussed whether a general approach to the topic is intelligible or if differences between Brazilian and European tendencies can be detected. To compare the results of the analysis with comic-stories from other countries, British and French comic-authors will be referred to, whenever necessary.