"It enters the realm of words deafly.
There are poems waiting to be written."
What is literature?
Literature is the art of the word.
in your poem Poetry Search, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, the greatest Brazilian poet of the 20th century, conducts a sensitive investigation about the craft of being a writer, about the daily work with words in search of the materialization of the poetry. Literature is an artistic expression that uses the word as a raw material, extracting its multiple meanings from it or using it as an instrument to talk about reality.
"Literary art is mimesis (imitation); it is the art that imitates through the word." (Aristotle, Greek philosopher, century IV a. Ç.)
Literature uses language as an instrument of communication and interaction. It is not alien to its social role, being, therefore, an indispensable artistic expression for the dissemination of culture and for the democratization of knowledge. A writer is a social being and, inserted in the reality of a people, captures situations and sensations, recreating reality or transfiguring it. Literature can be a photograph of its time and serve a political-ideological cause or a social struggle, without ever detaching itself from its artistic purpose.
the animal
I saw an animal yesterday
in the filth of the yard
Picking up food among the debris.
When I found something,
Neither examined nor smelled:
He swallows voraciously.
The animal was not a dog,
It wasn't a cat,
It wasn't a mouse.
The animal, my God, was a man.
Manuel Bandeira
Although it is irretrievably linked to language, it is not tied to it: literature is free to subvert grammatical rules and to confer multi-meanings on words in search of new meanings. In addition to its important social role, it can also (and should never be detached from this purpose) provide pleasure to the reader, rescuing thus the hedonistic function that predominated in its beginnings, leading it to imaginary worlds capable of awakening its sensitivity.
“Literature is sorcery made with the blood of the human heart.” (Guimarães Rosa, Brazilian writer, 19th century XX)
In this section, you will find several articles that investigate literary art: texts that address Brazilian literature, its formation, origins and main writers, as well as texts that contemplate Portuguese literature, whose history is indelibly linked to the Wow. Enjoy your reading and good studies!
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters