On a Knife-Edge: The Poetry of João Cabral de Melo Neto
Sara Brandellero
Abstract
This book studies the work of João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920-99), one of Brazil's foremost poets of the 20th century and a unique voice within Brazilian Modernism. It concentrates on the poet's later works, from A escola das facas (1980) to Andando Sevilha (1990), with the aim to provide an overview of a body of work which has so far attracted limited critical attention. In so doing, it also proposes a review of traditional readings of Cabral as a poet of clarity and precision, in order to demonstrate how ambiguity in language, imagery, and even structure was an integral part of his writing an ... More
This book studies the work of João Cabral de Melo Neto (1920-99), one of Brazil's foremost poets of the 20th century and a unique voice within Brazilian Modernism. It concentrates on the poet's later works, from A escola das facas (1980) to Andando Sevilha (1990), with the aim to provide an overview of a body of work which has so far attracted limited critical attention. In so doing, it also proposes a review of traditional readings of Cabral as a poet of clarity and precision, in order to demonstrate how ambiguity in language, imagery, and even structure was an integral part of his writing and contributed to the political impact of his work. The blurring of the opposition between life and death through the image of the knife-edge, central to the first of the works examined, provides a productive starting point for the analysis of the role of the in-between space, (or ‘entre-lugar’, as defined by Silviano Santiago) in his writing. Thus, this book discusses Cabral's postcolonial perspective, as in his dialogue with poetic tradition at home and abroad, and considers how, through his resistance to rigid categorizations, such as in representations of gender, and thematic exploration of grey areas such as haunting, unsolvable crimes, or even the labyrinthine geography of Seville, Cabral sought to unmask the inequities of Brazil's past and the challenges of its present.
Keywords:
Cabral,
Brazilian Modernism,
postcolonialism,
Silviano Santiago,
poetic tradition,
gender,
haunting,
Seville
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199589524 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589524.001.0001 |
