The journal Literatura e Sociedade, linked to the Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, of the School of Philosophy, Literature and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo, since its first issue, published in 1996, has focused on promoting, welcoming and publishing essays, lectures, testimonials, translations, reviews and interviews on fundamental issues of the literary phenomenon. The scope covers the theory of genres, the interface between literature and society, comparative literature, the relations between literature and other arts and areas of knowledge, the history of literature, great authors and great works, the methods and practices of literary criticism. The submissions of articles by PhD researchers, from Brazil and abroad, linked to the area of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature or related areas, are welcomed in continuous flow. The evaluation is done by peers indicated by the Editorial Committee. Since 2014, the journal's periodicity became semiannual.
Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
Breve reflexão de Augusto Massi sobre o livro Dentro da Noite Veloz, de Ferreira Gullar, e suas edições.
Copyright (c) 2026 Augusto Massi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Relato pessoal de Augusto Massi sobre sua relação com Ferreira Gullar e suas conversas ao longo dos anos.
Ferreira Gullar’s wanderings, from public to intimate space, from travels through different territories to a journey back to childhood, recovered as though it became present once again.
Copyright (c) 2026 Antonio Carlos Secchin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
O que quer, o que pode a poesia de Gullar: Limites da palavra entre a vida e a morte
This text examines the poetry of Ferreira Gullar through the tension between the awareness of death and reflections on poetic creation, highlighting how these two axes intertwine throughout his work. While the lyrical subject rejects the stagnation of language and aspires to a vital poetry integrated into the present, it simultaneously questions its ability to resist transience. The study traces the author’s trajectory from his early works to his political engagement, emphasizing the oscillation between belief in the transformative power of poetry and skepticism regarding its effectiveness. In his later works, the presence of death intensifies, associated with transience, and poetry assumes a different tone. The horizon of transformation shifts from the social sphere to the interior of the poem. Although distrust in the limits of language persists, Gullar conceives poetry as a space of symbolic elaboration and as the expression of a multiple and collective voice, capable of shaping experience and constituting a search for resistance in the face of finitude.
Copyright (c) 2026 Viviana Bosi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Da noite veloz à vertigem do dia: políticas do ritmo em Ferreira Gullar
The essay aims to outline an analytical commentary on the book Na vertigem do dia (1980), to briefly examine how some of the poems collected by Ferreira Gullar in the late 1970s manage a tense balance between opposite currents within his own work. It is believed that, by integrating metrical verse as an implicit parameter for the construction of forms that are free at first glance, the poet achieves, instead of binary exclusion, the superposition of constructivism and spontaneity, tendencies that were almost always rivals in the Brazilian poetic panorama of the time. The aesthetic plasticity derived from this, however, while seeming to represent a maturation from a formal point of view, is ideologically informed by a certain participatory retreat and a relative reification of the subject, revealing, for the early years of slow, gradual, and steady redemocratization, a new politics of rhythm.
Copyright (c) 2026 Zeno Queiroz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
"Quando eu estava em Buenos Aires em 1975": notas de perplexidade no Poema sujo de Ferreira Gullar
After presenting the context of the creation of Poema sujo by Ferreira Gullar, as well as the poem’s general characteristics, this article discusses the possible appropriateness – or not – of classifying it as “exile literature,” given that the text unfolds as a stream of childhood memory, filled with characters who inhabited the author’s hometown, São Luís do Maranhão, itself treated as a character among the multiple temporal layers that compose the poem. From this perspective, the study analyzes the unnamed presence of perplexity in three selected fragments, which also reveal a distinctive way of conceiving history and historiography; that is, perplexity displaces and transforms the notion of history, which thus comes to bear the same dirty and beautiful mark of life.
Copyright (c) 2026 Beatriz Vieira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Between December 1968 and January 1969, Ferreira Gullar was imprisoned for 20 days in the Vila Militar, in Rio de Janeiro, due to his opposition to the military dictatorship. Although the author never remained silent about this period in prison, mentions of the event, whether in his poetic work or in testimonies and interviews, are far less abundant and detailed than the mentions he left about his years in exile. Based on these gaps, the aim of this article is to reflect about the relationship between poetry and imprisonment in Gullar's work, especially through a reading of the poem "O prisioneiro" (The Prisoner), present in Dentro da noite veloz (1975). In this way, I situate the author's place in the repertoire of poetry of political prisoners of the military dictatorship (Ribeiro, 2020; Martinelli Filho, 2023; 2024), emphasizing the testimonial dimension of the poem.
Copyright (c) 2026 Marcelo Ferraz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
O Yuro, a Swift e o poeta em Ipanema: uma leitura de "Dentro da noite veloz" de Ferreira Gullar
The essay reads Ferreira Gullar’s long poem “Dentro da noite veloz”, which lends its title to the poet’s 1975 book. We examine the construction of literary space associated with the representation of the guerrilla struggle and the juxtaposition of different national territories, which is also present in other poems in the book; the poetic use of abstraction and address are other formal features considered. The analysis focuses on the procedures that render an incorporation of social contradictions possible in the poem; in other words, we inquire into the concrete results of the connection between poetry and political praxis.
Copyright (c) 2026 Luís Felipe Ferrari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Da sala escura à cena histórica: Ferreira Gullar e o Cinema Novo
This article examines Ferreira Gullar’s relationship with cinema through three interconnected movements. First, it analyzes the presence of the word “cinema” in Gullar’s poetry, where it appears predominantly as an element of everyday urban life, without developing into a reflection on cinematic language. It then traces the shift from the poetic plane to that of historical practice, in the context of the poet’s political engagement with the Centro Popular de Cultura (CPC), with particular attention to the poem João Boa-Morte and to the production of Cabra marcado para morrer, directed by Eduardo Coutinho. Finally, it investigates the complex relationship — both collaborative and conflictive — between Gullar and Glauber Rocha, culminating in a reading of the poem “Glauber morto”, in which death is confronted as a radical interruption, without symbolic compensation. The article argues that, although cinema does not occupy a central place in Gullar’s poetics as an artistic form, it plays a decisive role as a historical, political, and affective experience throughout his intellectual trajectory.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ivan Francisco Marques https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The article examines Ferreira Gullar’s poetic trajectory between the 1950s and 1960s, reflecting on the tense relationship between aesthetic autonomy and political engagement. In the first part, the text reconstructs Gullar’s initial dialogue with the Noigandres group, highlighting the conceptual differences between concrete poetry – especially in its orthodox phase – and Neoconcretism. The article then examines Gullar’s turn toward engagement from 1960 onward, comparing his essay Cultura posta em questão with the “participatory leap” proposed by Decio Pignatari to identify possible convergences and inevitable divergences between them. Finally, the analysis of the poem “Verao” demonstrates how, from Dentro da noite veloz onward, Ferreira Gullar can revisit formal elements drawn from popular tradition in an inventive way, without relinquishing the suggestive power of poetic language.
Copyright (c) 2026 Renan Nuernberger https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The author examines A luta corporal (1954), the first poetry collection published by Ferreira Gullar, with emphasis on the internal movements that connect each section of the book. The essay maps the several forms — such as the speculative tenor of certain poems, the reference to everyday objects, poetic apostrophizing, and irony — that mediate the relation between the lyrical subject and one the most persistent themes of the collection: time’s destructive essence. A comparison between Gullar’s poetry and the poets of Geração de 45 concludes the discussion.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alcides Villaça https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Inéditos de Ferreira Gullar: apresentação
This article presents eleven poems by Ferreira Gullar published in newspapers between 1947 and 1952 and are still unpublished in book form, with a brief commentary on the poet’s formative years. It argues that the exclusion of Um pouco acima do chão (1949) from the author's poetic work — he rejected his first book as naíve — contributed to a lack of interest in his work prior to the publication of A luta corporal (1954), obscuring important nuances in his development. Through a reading of his poems published in the press before 1954, the article seeks to highlight different inflections in his trajectory during this period, nuancing the author’s own account of his relationship with literary tradition, especially with Brazilian modernism.
Copyright (c) 2026 Miguel Conde https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Editorial por Anderson Gonçalves da Silva, Maria Augusta Fonseca, Samuel Titan Jr. (editores) e Viviana Bosi, Luís Felipe Ferrari e Zeno Queiroz (organizadores).
Copyright (c) 2026 Anderson Gonçalves da Silva, Maria Augusta Fonseca, Samuel Titan Jr., Viviana Bosi, Luís Felipe Ferrari, Zeno Queiroz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Alfredo Bosi: Recortes de jornal. Transcrições
Transcrições feitas por Alfredo Bosi
Copyright (c) 2025 Alfredo Bosi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Um mundo tomado pela escrita: a carta (como fantasma) no cinema
Resenha do texto Desconhecido na morada: carta no cinema, de Clara Rowland.
Desconhecido na morada: a carta no cinema
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcos Antonio de Moraes, Giovani T. Kurz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
O preparo de edições críticas e a presença desafiadora das novas tecnologias: a organização de correspondência em formato digital e algumas implicações para a pesquisa e o ensino no Brasil de hoje
This article aims to reflect on specific aspects related to the preparation of modern critical editions in an era of accelerated technological advancement. More specifically, it seeks to address issues concerning the preparation of digital critical editions based on archival documents from writers, particularly epistolography, by exploring how the confluence of philological studies and other specific disciplines (which consider the multiple status of texts in archives) can contribute to achieving fruitful editorial results. Some key points will touch upon the opportunities opened by increasing computerization and contemporary demands in education and research in Brazil. The article will discuss possibilities arising from the work of organizing the correspondence of Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987), one of the most widely published Brazilian essayists in Brazil and abroad, and José Lins do Rego (1901-1957), a prominent figure in 20th-century Brazilian novel writing. Finally, it will attempt to observe to what extent digital editions of epistolary texts, with philological rigor and extensive critical apparatus, are not only viable from an academic and pedagogical standpoint but also culturally relevant. Indeed, it is argued that they can, furthermore, offer a more complex reading of Modernism and the relationships between literature and culture in 20th-century Brazil.
Reflections on editorial specificities in the face of technological advancement
The organization of modern writers' correspondence and its challenges
The epistolography of Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987)
The epistolography of José Lins do Rego (1901-1957)
Copyright (c) 2025 Silvana Moreli Vicente Dias https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Do Barroco ao Neobarroco com Jean-Claude Bernardet
Transcrição da entrevista com Jean-Claude Bernardet.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcos Antonio de Moraes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
True to his fragmentary method, Adorno does not presente a systematic critique of progress in his writings. He did, however, outline an admirable attempt at a dialectical problematization of the notion of progress, beyond bourgeois myths and reactionary nostalgia.
fragmentary method, dialectical problematization
Copyright (c) 2025 Michael Löwy, Eleni Varikas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Cultura popular e religiosidade: Mário de Andrade e a cultura do boi no Brasil
The publication of an article by Mário de Andrade in December 1938, evoking the role of Saint Francis of Assisi and the “feeling for nature,” is discussed based on an analysis of his religious background and the possibility of intersection between the writing of the article and his dedication to preparing the Philosophy and History of Art course, on the one hand, and the study of ox culture, on the other. This is because the article “O irmão boi” both discusses the works of three authors who wrote about the influence of the “poor man of Assisi” on Renaissance art, and evokes the importance of ox worship in popular culture.
Copyright (c) 2025 Flávia Camargo Toni, Rosângela Francischini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Esta é uma resenha crítica, descritiva e pormenorizada de No soy un robot, livro de ensaios do escritor mexicano Juan Villoro, publicado em 2024, cujo objetivo principal é oferecer perspectivas atuais, debates e provocações sobre a cultura da letra na sociedade digital. Todos os questionamentos do autor afetam a relação proposta pelo título desta revista: Literatura e Sociedade. Como, hoje, a leitura, e em especial, a leitura de textos literários, poderia nos resgatar dos problemas produzidos pelo mau uso da tecnologia? Como nos alertaria a respeito de seus riscos e excessos?
Copyright (c) 2025 Livia Grotto https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Tras las impresiones de Mário de Andrade y Ermano Stradelli: resonancias espectrales
This article focuses on the resonances between the modernist writer Mario de Andrade and the proto-ethnologist Ermanno Stradelli, based on the discovery of a reading note by Mario de Andrade in the IEB-USP archive that reveals a phantom link between the two, which we conceptualize as assombração or enchantment, relating to their travels through the Amazon, from which various literary and photographic works emerged.
Copyright (c) 2025 María Florencia Donadi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Augusto Boal, the best known and studied Brazilian theater man all around the world, inherits and develops the agitprop theater tradition both in terms of dramaturgy and as a director, as well as in the field of politics properly. This essay tries to identify the most visible links between his works and the tradition of agitprop theater.
Copyright (c) 2025 Iná Camargo Costa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
O tempo-espaço tardo-sessentista n'O anjo nasceu de Bressane
This article is an attempt at formal analysis as immanent criticism, a kind of close reading describing and commenting on Júlio Bressane's film O anjo nasceu (The Angel Was Born, 1969) as an internal rupture within Cinema Novo, operating mainly on a formal level. Instead of the expressive mobility of “a camera in hand and an idea in mind” and the narrative dynamism associated with mobility around popular characters or their representatives — such as in Glauber Rocha's Terra em Transe (1967) and so many other Cinema Novo works — the film constructs a rigid, frontal, and orthogonal visual space, as if viewed from infinity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rubens Machado Júnior https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Gestos simbólicos de exposições anacrônicas: o sonho do poeta e a catástrofe
This essay is a Benjaminian reading of two different anachronic exhibitions in time-space where an unfamiliar look becomes a symbolic gesture: in 1931, Cícero Dias’ panel offers resistance against the modernist progressive trend of all of the other artists, while turning back to a provincial Northeast, in order to save some childhood memories which are, in turn, present. In 1944, the unfamiliarity of the Brazilian modernist artists exhibit in London is equivalent to the one in 1931. It receives an unfamiliar reception by the British, who had no knowledge of Brazialian art. Then the act of turning around acquires meaning and also shows a critical awakening in art, through the interruptions of the historical continuum.
Brazilian exhibits in 1931 and in 1944 (London)
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Luiza Andrade https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
After the dominance of art as paradigm of aesthetic values, contemporaneity has recognized itself in a plurality of practices where even the non-aesthetic is thought as aesthetic. Which is the formation of an artist under such circumstances? We will analyze the case of Teresa Nazar.
Copyright (c) 2025 Raul Antelo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Variações dialéticas sobre o Concerto Barroco de Alejo Carpentier
This essay aims to analyze Alejo Carpentier’s novel Concierto Barroco (1974) as a modernist experiment in which the Baroque functions simultaneously as an aesthetic form and as a historical problem specific to Latin America. The journey of the Mexican merchant and his servant Filomeno to the Venetian carnival reinscribes the Conquest of Mexico within the European economy of spectacle, where trauma is converted into an operatic plot neutralized by the conventional demand for the lieto fine. Giusti’s libretto for Vivaldi’s opera Motezuma is read as a symptom of the contradictions between the representation of historical violence and the — likewise historical — conventions governing artistic representations of history. The essay also shows how the novel juxtaposes stage and audience, ironizes the mechanisms of verisimilitude, suspends chronological temporality, and turns the “false” cry into a trigger of historical consciousness, displacing — surrealistically — the meaning of identities and representations. Finally, it returns to the nexus of opera, history, and power by comparing other operatic versions of the conquest (Graun, Spontini, Rihm) and foregrounding Carpentier’s original gesture: the introduction of an American subject who observes Europe as it represents him.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jorge de Almeida https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
This essay examines how the automobile reshapes urban experience and, consequently, the poet’s gaze in modern and contemporary literature. Arguing that the flâneur of early modernity gives way to the accelerated and fractured pedestrian of the metropolis, the text analyzes three poems — by José Paulo Paes, Sebastião Uchoa Leite, and Ana Cristina Cesar — alongside Adoniran Barbosa’s song “Iracema.” The study traces the shift of the car from an emblem of distinction and progress to a banalized, even oppressive, component of everyday life, one that transforms both perception and subjectivity. In the selected works, the automobile becomes a metaphor for paralysis and dissolution, an agent of shock and fragmentation, or a sign of temporal urgency and instability. The essay argues that contemporary poetry, by capturing fleeting scenes of movement and crossing, stages the tension between lyricism and reflection, between subjective experience and the urban environment. Within the rapid flow of traffic — where encounters are brief and collisions replace epiphanic moments — the poetic gaze resists metropolitan speed and recovers momentary flashes of consciousness.
Copyright (c) 2025 Viviana Bosi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Minha glória literária: memória da infância e formação do escritor em Rubem Braga e Manuel Bandeira
Genre that established itself with peculiar caracteristics in Brazil, the “chronicle” establishes links with its original publishing vehicle, the newspaper, but also diferences that bring it closer to the literary. As na exemple is analized in Rubem Braga’s “Minha glória literária” — Brazilian writer that devoted himself uniquely to the newspaper chronicle —, the theme of childhood memories, which at first sight rules against the instant and transitory nature of the genre, but Braga approaches it under the influence of Manuel Bandeira’s poetry. At his turn, the poet from Pernambuco also uses his paper column to remember his first steps into literature, in “Confidências a Edmundo Lys”.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sylvia Tamie Anan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The literary chronicle of the young Rubem Braga opens unexplored angles in the Brazilian intellectual experience. It sheds new light both on the modern development of the genre and on the relations between culture and politics in the 1930s. This is what we seek to demonstrate by analyzing the discursive forms experimented in “Engraxates de São Paulo”, written in 1935 and never published in book.
Copyright (c) 2025 Arthur Vonk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Literatura e Psicanálise: Amor (e ódio) em Emma Zunz
“Emma Zunz” is a short story in the book El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges (1949) and is analyzed here from the perspective of the three passions according to the theory of Lacan: love, hate and ignorance. The central character, Emma, experiences such passions in her attempt to avenge her father's death.These passions constitute the dynamic that sustains her actions, her dissimulations and the ambivalence of the narrative composition itself.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cleusa Rios Passos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0