The Poetic language: a dialogue between Octavio Paz and Henri Lefebvre

• Grant number: 24/20864-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning
• Principal Investigator: Carolina Akemi Martins Morita Nakahara
• Grantee: Lívia Nobre Baldochi
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This Research Project is linked to the project "Poiesis: appropriation and production ofspace through participation", which studies the meanings and scope of poiesis in A&U.It proposes, as a general objective, to understand some possible meanings of poiesis - orthe poetic making -, through the intersection between the analyzes of Henri Lefebvre and Octavio Paz.The notion of inhabiting is taken as a starting point - part of the right to the city postulatedby the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre -, as a way of appropriating and producing thespace that is not restricted to the economic sphere, but rather encompasses a way of being, ofknowing and positioning oneself in the world of man. Thus, it is closely related to themeaning of poetic making which, for the Mexican poet Octávio Paz, is an operation capable ofchanging the world. Therefore, it is proposed, as a specific objective, the construction ofconceptual keys based on the interlocution between the writings on poetry of these two fundamental authors: Henri Lefebvre and Octávio Paz - through selected and specific bibliography, and aware of the direct dialogue between them established through letters. The project is justified by the eminent demand for the right to the city, in addition to the usual responsesthat still walk in the wake of modern functionalism. In the face of contradictionsfaced by cities in the Global South and exacerbated in the recent period, as well as in theapparent exhaustion of disciplinary strategies that point to emancipationthrough the production of space, it is believed that understanding poiesis can providenew critical and projectual instruments to think about A&U, at the same time asit deepens the debate regarding the current possibilities of social appropriation of space. (AU)