Reimagining Authorship: The Rise of Writer-Illustrators and the Renewal of Brazilian Picturebooks in the 1980s: Ricardo Azevedo and Angela Lago Case Studies

This article examines the emergence of the writer-illustrator as a significant creative figure in Brazilian children's literature from the 1980s onward. Situated within the broader transformation of the Brazilian publishing market and the diversification of literary production following the decline of school-oriented narrative models, the study argues that picturebooks consolidation introduced new conceptions of authorship, materiality, and literary expression. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Antoine Compagnon, Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott, David Lewis, C. S. Lewis, and Tzvetan Todorov, this article investigates how the picturebook became a privileged space for experimentation with narrative form, metafiction, and the representation of the fantastic. Two case studies are examined: Um homem no sótão (1980), by Ricardo Azevedo, and O fio do riso (1980), by Ângela Lago. Both works anticipate aesthetic and narrative concerns that would become increasingly relevant in the following decades. The analysis demonstrates that these works appropriate and subvert the traditions of fairy tales in order to explore the unstable boundaries between reality and imagination. Ultimately, the article argues that these early picturebooks represent decisive contributions to the development of a new literary paradigm in Brazil, one in which the writer-illustrator emerges as a central agent in the reconfiguration of children's literature as a hybrid and multimodal artistic form.