Between graphics and syntax: considerations on the semiotic operations of writings in the Brazilian concrete poetry

Abstract

This work aims at describing the form of discursive agency present in a specific concrete poem from the hypothesis that such poem manifests what can be called a poetics of writing. In this respect, we present considerations for approaching the semiotic status of writing in order to understand how its plastic forms can be mobilized to constitute meaning in a poem. Next, we seek to identify the specificity of the concrete poetry writing by comparing the poem "pluvial/fluvial", by Augusto de Campos, with a calligram by Apollinaire and by describing the different discursive strategies employed by each enunciating subject in order to put the plastic expression of the writing and the contents of the poems in relation. From this analysis, it is possible to state that the concrete poem shifts the phonological emphasis on the western alphabetical system towards a grammatological dimension (Klock-Fontanille, 2016). Such practice differs from other poetic experiments with writing either by the emphasis on syntactic features of the plastic forms regarding verbal discourse or by the objectivization of poetic language.