Consumption, Style and the Precarious in Manoel de Barros’ Poetry

Abstract

The criticism dedicated to the poet from the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso/ Mato Grosso do Sul Manoel de Barros is wide-ranging, but in spite of the many approaches to his work, undertaken by the specialists of the literary field, according to us, it is still necessary to investigate, although briefly, the relevance of his discursive strategy, on the basis of the relationships between his poetical universe and the phenomenon of consumption. Thus we approach some characteristics of his stylistics, above all the reiterated exploitation of certain elements of the natural world (specially its emphasis on the “precarious” things and beings) and the linguistic inversions (which defy normative grammar), responsible for the “differentiating mark” of his work, which, in order to impose itself, deliberately moves away from the hegemonic path. In this discussion, we mobilise concepts of literary theory, of the interface between communication and consumption and of the precepts of the French Discourse Analysis.