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"Lembras-te de quando era tudo diferente?": Concrete Poetry and Revolution in Portugal in the 1960s and '70s

The article traces the politics of form and the forms of the political in Portuguese concrete and visual poetry from the 1960s and '70s. The Portuguese Experimental Poetry movement (PO.EX) maintained an active struggle against both the traditionalist literary establishment, and Salazar's d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Luso-Brazilian review 2018-06, Vol.55 (1), p.51-84
Main Author: Ledesma, Eduardo
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The article traces the politics of form and the forms of the political in Portuguese concrete and visual poetry from the 1960s and '70s. The Portuguese Experimental Poetry movement (PO.EX) maintained an active struggle against both the traditionalist literary establishment, and Salazar's dictatorship. During Salazar's rule, cultural production—including experimental poetry—was intrinsically linked to political action, to street graffiti, posters and other forms of political art and public protest. By focusing on works by three prominent poets (Alexandre O'Neill, E. M. de Melo e Castro, and Ana Hatherly), I argue that concrete poetry, and more broadly speaking experimental poetry, sought to combat the fascist Estado Novo and its censorship apparatus through veiled denunciation and aggressive formal techniques that destabilized established categories such as text and image, subjective and objective, or poetry and painting. Este artigo traça as políticas da forma e as formas da política na poesia concreta e visual portuguesa, nas décadas de 60 e 70 do século passado. O movimento de poesia experimental portuguesa (PO.EX) manteve uma intensa luta, tanto contra o cânone literário quanto contra a ditadura de Salazar. Durante o regime de Salazar, a produção cultural—incluindo a poesia experimental—ficou intrinsecamente associada à ação política, o grafite urbano, os pôsteres e outras formas de arte política e protesto público. Partindo dos trabalhos de três preeminentes poetas (Alexandre O'Neill, E. M. de Melo e Castro, e Ana Hatherly), argumento que a poesia experimental e, mais particularmente, a poesia concreta, tratou de combater o fascista Estado Novo e o seu aparato censor, por meio de uma denúncia velada e de técnicas formais agressivas, concebidas para questionar o significado pré-estabelecido de certas categorias, tais como texto e imagem, subjetivo e objetivo, ou, até mesmo, poesia e pintura.
ISSN:0024-7413
1548-9957
DOI:10.3368/lbr.55.1.51