Paulo Leminski como sintoma de seu tempo

Abstract

This dissertation examines the work of Paulo Leminski based on the hypothesis that his poetics are structured through aesthetic and discursive tensions, functioning as a symptom of the cultural, political, and literary transformations that marked Brazil from the 1960s to the 1980s. Frequently categorized as a concrete, marginal, pop, or postmodern poet, Leminski is here understood as an author who occupies in-between spaces, articulating formal rigor and colloquial language, verbo-visual experimentation and orality, modern desubjectivation and the fragmented return of the lyrical self. The study adopts an analytical focus on selected passages from works such as Catatau, Quarenta Clics em Curitiba, Caprichos e Relaxos, Distraídos Venceremos, and Ensaios e Anseios Crípticos, highlighting moments in which these tensions become formally explicit. The theoretical framework draws on discussions of concrete poetry, aesthetics, form, and subjectivity, engaging with authors such as Haroldo and Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, Michel Collot, Marcos Siscar, and Vladimir Safatle. The dissertation argues that the contradictions within Leminski’s work do not undermine its coherence; rather, they constitute its creative logic, transforming conflict into method. In doing so, it demonstrates that Leminski not only reflects his time but formally stages it, producing a poetics that remains essential to understanding contemporary Brazilian literature.