From political exile to poetic wandering: figurations of deterritorialization in the work of Manuel Alegre

• Grant number: 22/08551-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2022
• End date: September 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Other Vernacular Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Caio Márcio Poletti Lui Gagliardi
• Grantee: Maria Eduarda Miranda Paniago
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/05963-3 - Exile and wandering in Manuel Alegre's poetics: contemporary displacements and identity representations, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This research project is part of the broader project "Figures of exile in Portuguese Literature of the 20th century", coordinated by Prof. Dr. Caio Gagliardi. It is also a development of the Scientific Initiation "Manuel Alegre rewriting Camões", developed between 2020 and 2021 and funded by USP's Unified Scholarship Program (PUB). The project aims to analyze the lyrical manifestations of the exile experience and the condition of wandering in the poetry of the Portuguese writer Manuel Alegre (1936). It starts with two central hypotheses: (1) it proposes to approach the experience of exile as a key element for understanding Alegre's poetics, considering its different manifestations throughout his work; (2) from the concept of "internalized exile", proposed by MENDES (2008), we intend to analyze the transition of representations of exile in the poet's work, which move from a traumatic experience of political-geographical exile to a both poetic and existential condition. To do so, we will work with books from the author's three phases. In Atlântico (1981), exile appears mainly as a subject, associated with the biographical experience of the poet, condemned to political exile during Salazarism. In Vinte poemas para Camões (1992), a shift from the biopolitical figuration of exile to the domain of literature itself is revealed, through the dialogue established with the poetry of Luís de Camões, one of the most representative figures of wandering and exile in the Portuguese cultural imaginary. Finally, the Livro do Português Errante (2001) presents deterritorialization as an element already internalized in the author's poetic work, that is, no longer as a simple theme, but as a true condition for writing and for a broader reflection on the existence.