Identity, history and language in the poetry of Salgado Maranhão

Abstract

The publication of Pedra de encantaria (2022) is an opportune moment for the reassessment of the vast oeuvre of Salgado Maranhão (1953---), one of the most innovative contemporary poets in the Portuguese language. This article takes as its theoretical starting points Paul Ricoeur's (1913-2005) suggestion that personal identity can only be articulated in the temporal dimension of human existence, as well as the dialectic between tradition and individual talent, proposed in the celebrated eponymous essay by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965). Pedra de encantaria reaffirms and complexifies the inextricable interconnections between the fluidity of identity, the transgressive force of poetic language, the historical, familial and personal importance of Afro-Indigenous-Brazilian culture, and the inescapable palimpsest of Luso-Brazilian poetic tradition, from Camões and Pessoa to Drummond and Faustino, which constitutes the trademark of Salgado’s poetry, always generous and empathetic. This article aims to demonstrate how Pedra de encantaria represents a summa of the author's poetry and poetics. To this goal, it draws links to several of his previous books, such as Ebulição da escrivatura (1978), Punhos da serpente (1989), Palávora (1995), Sol sanguíneo (2002), O mapa da tribo (2013) and Ópera de nãos (2015).