{"id":227023,"date":"2016-11-22T18:10:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T20:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/?p=227023"},"modified":"2016-11-22T18:31:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T20:31:49","slug":"love-according-to-mario-de-andrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/love-according-to-mario-de-andrade\/","title":{"rendered":"Love according to M\u00e1rio de Andrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MarioElisa Carareto<\/span>Much remains still to be discovered, recovered and analyzed in the writings and documents left behind by M\u00e1rio de Andrade (1893-1945), the writer, musicologist, student of popular culture, essayist, literary critic and cultural steward. One promising line of attack, owing to the volume and variety of materials available, is to study the overlap in the broad array of activities in which he engaged. Based on study of the influence of the poet\u2019s research on music on the structure of his poems begun 15 years ago, researcher Cristiane Rodrigues de Souza of the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (IEB-USP) concluded that the poet\u2019s use of formal music-related elements reveals his concept of love in all of his work in verse. According to De Souza\u2019s postdoctoral research project, \u201cRomantic lyricism and the poetry of M\u00e1rio de Andrade,\u201d which is close to completion, the idea of love as a conflict of forces, apparent in the author\u2019s early poetry collections, gives way to a feeling of serenity and peace in his later work.<\/p>\n

De Souza found different approaches to understand the writer\u2019s work, analyzing books from his library stored at the IEB, in addition to other sources. Other researchers have been engaged in similar work. One long-time specialist in the poet, Professor Tel\u00ea Ancona Lopez of the IEB as well as USP\u2019s School of Philosophy, Literature and Humanities who oversees De Souza\u2019s postdoctoral research, sees this activity \u2013 which she describes as \u201cthe training of a reader\u2019s writer\u201d \u2013 as one of the three main approaches currently in vogue in research on the poet. The other two are based on his correspondence \u2013 Andrade exchanged letters with a large number of intellectuals of his era \u2013 and the publication of unedited works. \u201cIn these research projects, the analysis and interpretation of literary criticism is enriched by a study of the creative process, based on genetic criticism,\u201d Lopez explains. Genetic criticism seeks to reconstruct the writer\u2019s work using traces of his creative process, which is possible only with at least the partial preservation of his material legacy. Professor Lopez asserts that aspects of the poet\u2019s work that still call for study include his work as a newspaper critic in articles about such topics as literature, fine arts and music.<\/p>\n

De Souza says that her current research reflects \u201ca moment of maturation after a long period of reflection on the poetry of M\u00e1rio de Andrade and an ongoing search for connections between poetry and music.\u201d In her early research, she emphasized the modernist poet\u2019s use of musical structures and elements in his work. In two of his works, De Souza focused on poems in Cl\u00e3 do jabuti<\/em> (Clan of the Jabuti – 1927). Her analysis seeks to shed light on the presence of elements drawn from popular music and folklore (a term used by the poet to designate what is known more commonly today as popular culture) in the poet\u2019s \u201clyrical voice.\u201d In the poems, she searched for rhythm and the arrangement of phonetic tones which create music as well as the presence of structures from genres of music that are sung, like modal and prayer, and techniques like themes and variations. De Souza believes that the writer\u2019s verses in the poems in Cl\u00e3 do jabuti<\/em> definitely incorporate \u201cthe forms, techniques and themes of popular music.\u201d This bringing together of varied and often opposing elements reflects a search \u201cto define the many faces of his country and himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trips throughout Brazil<\/strong>
\nOver the course of his life, Andrade conducted intensive research into popular culture, particularly music, while establishing his literary career and working as a public servant. In the 1920s, he took two research trips to Brazil\u2019s North and Northeast regions, first on his own account (1927) and then in his work as both ethnographer and reporter for the Di\u00e1rio Nacional <\/em>(National Journal – 1928). In 1935, the writer took the helm of the Department of Culture for the city of S\u00e3o Paulo (equivalent to a municipal secretariat), where he founded the Mission for Research on Folklore. Three years later, the mission took its first trip in search of ethnographic data. After work in six states, the research was interrupted when the writer was forced out during the dictatorship of Get\u00falio Vargas.<\/p>\n

In addition to influencing Andrade\u2019s poetry, popular music is also intrinsic to the narrative of Macuna\u00edma<\/em>, which the author called a rhapsody rather than a novel. This musical genre is characterized by the juxtaposition of several themes, including many derived from popular melodies. In a plot line that brings together popular traditions, legends and myths from different regions in Brazil, the rhapsodic style reflects the notion of a multi-faceted country \u2013 complex and \u201cwithout character\u201d (that is, without a defined identity), just as the writer described his main character. Macuna\u00edma<\/em> celebrated its ninetieth birthday this year. Andrade said he wrote the book in six days during the month of December 1926 in a shack in Araraquara (SP). The book was released only in 1928.<\/p>\n

As she moved further into her inquiry into the musicality of the author\u2019s poetry, De Souza realized something during research for her doctorate, which she defended at the USP School of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences (FFLCH-USP) and conducted under the supervision of Professor Alcides Villa\u00e7a. In the poems where music is most clearly in play contained in the book Remate de males<\/em> (An end to evils – 1930), love is also constantly present. In this book, \u201cin a more measured tone, the mature poet, while seeking to familiarize himself with and incorporate features of Brazilian culture, also turns his gaze to an inner music, varied and complex like his country,\u201d says the researcher.<\/p>\n

\"MarioElisa Carareto<\/span>By \u201cinner music,\u201d the researcher understands the notion of love as one of the faces of the multi-faceted poet of \u201cEu sou trezentos<\/em>… (I am three hundred\u2026),\u201d the first poem in the collection. In the romantic verses, De Souza identified structures like those of popular dance tunes, or \u201cdramatic dances\u201d as Andrade termed them, such as the [Brazilian folk theatrical traditions] bumba meu boi<\/em> and os reisados<\/em>. These dances are marked by a sequence of staged battles, which the researcher connects to \u201cthe struggle between the poet\u2019s desire and forbidden love\u201d in the collection of poems called \u201cTempo da Maria <\/em>(Maria\u2019s time).\u201d In \u201cPoemas da negra <\/em>(Poems of the black woman),\u201d in turn, the structure is one of flight, ending with a \u201ctonal resolution\u201d that, at certain points, De Souza relates to the \u201cjoining of bodies\u201d in a meeting of lovers.<\/p>\n

De Souza also analyzed verses from Poesias<\/em> (Poems – 1941) and Lira paulistana<\/em> (Lyre of Sao Paulo – 1945, published posthumously). In the former, the collection of poems entitled \u201cGirassol da madrugada\u201d <\/em>(Sunflower at dawn) stands out. \u201cThe poet\u2019s experiences with love come about without the struggle between opposing forces that occurs in the dramatic dances, but rather are staged in a low key way,\u201d says De Souza, drawing on the example of the verses \u201cN\u00e3o h\u00e1 sen\u00e3o Narciso entre n\u00f3s dois, lagoa,\/ J\u00e1 se perdeu saciado o desperd\u00edcio das uiaras<\/em>\u201d (There isn\u2019t but Narcissus between us, lake\/It has already been fulfilled, the waste of the water nymphs.\u00a0 For De Souza, there is an overcoming of the \u201cdeprivation that moves Eros\u201d (romantic desire), giving way to \u201cfull blown ecstasy without impatience\u201d in love known as philia<\/em> (meaning friendship in ancient Greek). In the analogy with dramatic dance, the traditional sequence of \u201critual death arising from the climax\u201d and subsequent resurrection is transformed into a continuous repose imagined as a \u201cburning truce.\u201d The music of dramatic dance, with its epic battles, also gives rise to popular melodies which Andrade called \u201cthe music of witchcraft,\u201d which suggests a daze-like state.<\/p>\n

Lassitude \u2013 the emotion that exemplifies the character Macuna\u00edma \u2013 is evoked in \u201cRito do irm\u00e3o pequeno <\/em>(Ritual of the younger brother),\u201d another group of poems in the 1941 collection. In this poem, the poet exhorts his younger brother to \u201cpractice lassitude, and wander about.\u201d This time, according to De Souza, \u201cthere is a full embrace of pleasure, which does not seek sexual consummation but rather a state of contemplation and wholeness,\u201d close to the notion of \u201clove for beauty itself\u201d described by Socrates in the dialogue The Banquet<\/em> by Plato.<\/p>\n

Reason and sensibility<\/strong>
\nIn these poems from the last phase of the poet\u2019s work, De Souza also identifies the desire for a harmony of opposites, leading one to a notion of artistic construction, since works of art can bring together reason and sensibility. This ambition is based on the theory of German philosopher and poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), which suggests that art is the only means of deconstructing, creating a new harmony of opposites, a fracture arising in humans because of the gap between a primordial innocence and modern rational thought.\u00a0 In Schiller\u2019s ideas, Andrade found a basis for his work as an artist, student of popular music and professor at the Conservatory of Drama and Music in the city of S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

One important publication among the author\u2019s unpublished works now being recovered is the unfinished novel Caf\u00e9 <\/em>(Coffee), whose publication was prepared over the course of several years by Tatiana Longo Figueiredo, another researcher at IEB-USP. The publisher Nova Fronteira<\/em> released the novel in mid-2015, upon the 70th<\/sup> anniversary of Andrade\u2019s death, and in so doing, completed the process of making all of his work available to the public. To prepare the novel for publication, which constituted Figueiredo\u2019s doctoral thesis presented to the IEB in 2009, the researcher managed to locate 11 drafts among documents kept at the IEB. Andrade, who\u2019d had ambitious plans for the novel, even though he experienced several instances of dissatisfaction with his writing, worked on the novel between 1920 and 1940. \u201cIt was a huge task with many puzzles,\u201d according to Figueiredo.<\/p>\n

Music plays a prominent role in Caf\u00e9<\/em>. \u201cThe text is filled with musical elements, from the very choice of the main character, Chico Ant\u00f4nio,\u201d says the researcher, who recalls that in the 1940s, when Andrade anticipated that he would not complete the novel, he transformed it into an opera. Chico Ant\u00f4nio, who inspired the character bearing his name, was a popular singer that Andrade met on his second trip to research popular culture in 1928.\u00a0 He compared the mastery of this artist with that of operatic tenors like Beniamino Gigli and Enrico Caruso. Figueiredo says that he saw in this character \u201cthe creative idleness and extreme lassitude that he believed were ideal components for the creation of poetry.\u201d In several scenes in the book, as in the poems De Souza studied, \u201cthe narrator merges the discourse of the poet with that of the singer.\u201d She gives an example: \u201cO ganz\u00e1 chiou num solu\u00e7o. Ai, seu dout\u00f4, quando chegar em sua terra, v\u00e1 dizer que Chico Ant\u00f4nio \u00e9 danado pra embolar! Adeus casa, adeus amigo, adeus sala de estar! Adeus l\u00e1pis de escrever! Adeus papel de assentar! Adeus as mo\u00e7as sensatas, adeus luz de alumiar, adeus casa de alicerce e a honra deste lugar<\/em>!\u201d (The ganz\u00e1<\/em> chirred in a sob. Hey, Mister, when you get back to your land, let them know that Chico Ant\u00f4nio is a real sly one! So long home, so long friend, so long family room! So long writing pencil, so long account ledgers! So long to the good girls, so long shining light, so long to the upstanding house and the honor of this place!)<\/p>\n

Project<\/strong>
\nRomantic lyricism and the poetry of M\u00e1rio de Andrade (n\u00ba 2013\/25992-6<\/a>); Grant Mechanism\u00a0<\/strong>Scholarships in Brazil \u2013 Regular \u2013 Postdoctoral; Principal Investigator\u00a0<\/strong>Tel\u00ea Ancona Lopez (IEB-USP); Grantee <\/strong>Cristiane Rodrigues de Souza; Investment<\/strong>\u00a0R$ 123,459.28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysis of the verses sheds light on the evolution of the poet\u2019s task ","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[245],"coauthors":[137],"class_list":["post-227023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humanities","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227023"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=227023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}