Inaugural Dissonances Between Exponents of the 1945 Generation and João Cabral de Melo Neto – In the Context of the Reception of O cão sem plumas (1950–1952)

Abstract

This study investigates the critical and aesthetic dissonances between João Cabral de Melo Neto and the so-called 1945 generation, especially from the reception of the work O cão sem plumas (1950), considered disruptive in relation to the author’s earlier production. Although within academia the dissociation between Cabral’s poetics and the generational group is a settled point, the association of the poet with certain stigmas of the generation still persists. Supporting this dissociation, the study shows that tensions between these two poles were already present since the coining of the term “1945 generation” in 1948, becoming more pronounced after the publication of the 1950 work. Based on documentary research conducted at the National Library’s Digital Newspaper Archive (1948–1952), the study maps the dissonances that permeate the relationship between the poet and figures such as Péricles Eugênio da Silva Ramos and Domingos Carvalho da Silva, also considering other voices from the intellectual scene of the period. It concludes that the discordant reception of the work and the contextual issues that surround it are symptomatic of fractures between the formal ideals of the 1945 generation and João Cabral de Melo Neto’s singular ethical-aesthetic project – fractures that would widen even further in the following years.