Aesthetics of equilibrium: the vanguard poetics of Vicente Huidobro and Mário de Andrade

263 Pages·2006·2.295 MB·English

by  Andrade, Mário de, Huidobro, Vicente, Huidobro, Vicente, Andrade, Mário de, Willis, Bruce Dean

AESTHETICS OF
EQUILIBRIUM
Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures
Editorial Board
Patricia Hart, Series Editor Howard Mancing
Jeanette Beer Floyd Merrell
Paul B. Dixon Allen G. Wood
Benjamin Lawton
Associate Editors
French Spanish and Spanish American
Paul Benhamou Maryellen Bieder
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Catherine Connor
Gerard J. Brault
Ivy A. Corfis
Mary Ann Caws
Frederick A. de Armas
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Ursula Tidd
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Italian
Amy Kaminsky
Fiora A. Bassanese
Lucille Kerr
Peter Carravetta
Franco Masciandaro Alberto Moreiras
Anthony Julian Tamburri Randolph D. Pope
Luso-Brazilian Francisco Ruiz Ramón
Fred M. Clark Elzæbieta Sk¬odowska
Marta Peixoto Mario Valdés
Ricardo da Silveira Lobo Sternberg Howard Young
volume 36
AESTHETICS OF
EQUILIBRIUM
The Vanguard Poetics
of Vicente Huidobro
and Mário de Andrade
Bruce Dean Willis
Purdue University Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright © 2006 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Anita Noble
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willis, Bruce Dean, 1968–
The vanguard poetics of Vicente Huidobro and Mário de Andrade /
Bruce Dean Willis.
p. cm. — (Purdue studies in romance literatures ; v. 36)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55753-422-4 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-55753-422-5
1. Huidobro, Vicente, 1893–1948—Criticism and interpretation.
2. Andrade, Mário de, 1893–1945—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Latin
American Poetry—20th century—History and criticism. I. Title
II. Series.
PQ8097.H8Z955 2006
861'.62—dc22 2006001192
Contents
vii List of Abbreviations
ix Preface
The Latin American Avant-Garde: Context for
Vicente Huidobro’s and Mário de Andrade’s Poetics
xxiiiAcknowledgments
xxv A Note on Translation and Orthography
1 Introduction
A Desire for Equilibrium in Avant-Garde Poetics:
The Parables “Non serviam” and “Parabola d’A escrava
que não é Isaura”
25 Part One
Poetry as Orientation of the Creative Self:
Vicente Huidobro
32 Chapter One
Poetic Engineering: Creating the Poetic Realm
in Huidobro’s Early Manifestos
71 Chapter Two
Orientation and Trajectory in “Aviso a los turistas” and
“Manifiesto tal vez”
85 Chapter Three
Dimensions of the Poet God: Huidobro’s Final Manifestos
99 Part Two
Poetry as Contraband from the Unconscious:
Mário de Andrade
104 Chapter Four
“Prefácio Interessantíssimo” as Mock Manifesto
129 Chapter Five
At the Dock and on the Street: The Loss of Purity and
Solidarity in Mário’s Poetics
146 Chapter Six
Balancing the Equations: Mário’s Struggle to Define
Aesthetic Simultaneity
v
Contents
178 Conclusion
A Poetics of Equilibrium and the Avant-Garde Paradox
191 Appendix
English Translations
203 Notes
215 Works Cited
223 Works Consulted
227 Index
vi
List of Abbreviations
The following abbreviations have been used to refer to the
works of Mário de Andrade.
PC
Poesias Completas
OI
Obra Imatura
“Prefácio”
“Prefácio” in PC
Paulicéia
Paulicéia Desvairada in PC
“Parábola”
“Parábola d’A escrava que não é Isaura” in OI
Escrava
A escrava que não é Isaura in OI
vii

Preface
The Latin American Avant-Garde
Context for Vicente Huidobro’s
and Mário de Andrade’s Poetics
Generally defined as the era between the world wars, the avant-
garde or vanguard period was a time of unprecedented urban
and industrial growth and consequent struggles to define the
young republics of Latin America.1 These artistic acts of self-
definition, mindful of the European vanguard movements’ dis-
paraging treatments of Western tradition and revered awe for
so-called “primitive” cultures, revolutionized Latin American
literary, musical, and plastic art expressions. Although the van-
guard movements can be thought of as united by their Euro-
pean heritage, pertaining to formal and thematic innovations
that were part of a general, ongoing process of artistic change,
they can also stand apart, each related to the particular aesthetic
and social issues that served as its national or regional foci.
Brazilian modernistas, for example, revolutionized literary ex-
pression in Brazilian (as opposed to Continental) Portuguese,
while Mexican estridentistas rhetoricized the social progress
of the Mexican Revolution, yet artists in both movements were
influenced by Italian futurism. In classifications of the avant-
garde, Vicente Huidobro (1893–1948) is inevitably associated
with his movement, creacionismo (creationism, sometimes
called literary cubism), and Mário de Andrade (1893–1945)
with Brazilian modernismo (he was an acknowledged leader
and received the informal title of “Pope of Modernism”), in the
same way that Manuel Maples Arce represents estridentismo
or the early Borges ultraísmo.2 These classifications are mean-
ingful in that they help to comprehend the varying strategies of
the vanguard movements, yet the classified movements may
also be seen as different means to the same end. The common
goal of all the movements is the writing of literature, especially
ix