Água, terra, lama: a representação do espaço na trilogia do rio, de João Cabral de Melo Neto

Abstract

The current dissertation is a critical and analytical study of João Cabral de Melo Neto’s river trilogy. Our focus thus is directed to works that thematize the relations between physical, social and geographical space. In the poem O Cão sem plumas (1951), the literary space is established through metaphors and dense analogies, representing Capibaribe river and the mangrove as a survival environment, in the context of social emergence of the mud-man. Turning to O rio ou a relação da viagem que o Capibaribe faz da sua nascente à cidade de Recife (1953), the geographical space is reported by the voice of the river, whose water is transformed into a poetic guide of Cabral’s memories. At last, in Morte e vida severina – auto de Natal Pernambucano (1954-55), the dry land is dramatically presented by the gaze of Severino, transiting between death and life. From this vantage point, our goal is to investigate the ways space is represented in cabralian poetry, interpreting the signs that compose it – water, land, mud.