It is from the birth of the seed / in the shadow of the rough log

notes on the transgressive and insurgent poetics of Northeastern Brazilian repentism, in defense of a dignified environmental ethos

Abstract

This manuscript investigates, in light of Northeastern Brazilian popular repentista prodution, themes of an insurgent and denunciatory poetics in defense of a more humane ecosystem. In Ayala and Tavares, the theoretical foundations of cantoria de repente are outlined, as well as its characteristics and particularities as a genre of the Northeastern Brazilian oral tradition. In Aristotle and Hegel, the theoretical bases of poetry and its effects as art are sought. For the relationship between oral-tradition poetics and nature, the study draws on Rousseau, while Freire contributes to the thesis of “being more” in the constitution of an insurgent and denunciatory poetics. This qualitative research is based on two genres of cantoria de repente (two décimas in the form of Mote em Sete and two Canções). From improvised themes concerning nature, five analytical categories are proposed, from which the following results were deduced: the purpose of Northeastern Brazilian oral poetics as denunciatory and insurgent in defense of environmental issues; the strong presence of the appeal to the divine as the creative matrix of nature; the effectiveness of popular denunciation marked in improvisations; the constant search, through this poetics, to take the lead in the search for “being more”.