THE LITERARY CRAFTSMANSHIP IN THE MODERNIST POEM COBRA NORATO: A READING ON TRADITION IN RUPTURE

Abstract

 Besides working towards a Brazilian cultural autonomy, literary works conceived under the ideological protection of the Brazilian Modern Art Week of 1922 made an effort to convincingly despise the tradition and formal canons. Cobra Norato, a major poem by Raul Bopp, first published in 1931, intended to confirm such premises. However, in the substrate of the Amazon folklore that permeates this poem, a literary craftsmanship which recovers metaphors and classical inputs can be perceived. As we bring into play the idea of pathosformel (Warburg, 2010), this paper investigates how the poetic language of Cobra Norato (1931) repeats majestically the mythical imaginary in its macro and micro structures, pointing towards a secular notion of art – and, thus, of literature – as an aesthetic artifact.  At the same time, this paper analyses how the common signs of classical culture permeate this modernist poem. We shall see then that the craft of reconstructing poetically the serpentarium myth does not shy away from the dialogue with the Greco-Roman world, which suggests the survival of tradition in rupture.