Tensões e implicações entre poesia e resistência na contemporaneidade portuguesa

Abstract

The heterogeneity of the discursive practices we call poetry is shown in different concepts of resistance, which, in turn, are as variable as the poetics associated with them. "There’s no larger or more infamous oppression than that of language," wrote Alberto Pimenta, and poetry develops mechanisms of resistance that rely on the awareness of this fact. On the other hand, perhaps there has also been some sort of resistance to the uses that modern poetry has claimed for "the words of the tribe". Discussing the contemporary world, Pimenta recently noted: “in these paths of obedience, we sometimes hear that somewhere along the way 4 doctors are missing, or 4 judges, or 4 masons, or 4 drivers, or 4 tax inspectors, but never will we hear that 4 poets are missing. Just as well.” Why “just as well”? Why does poetry feel the need to be on the margins? And if it is not missed (?), why does poetry continue to exist? Alberto Pimenta’s poetic “operations” and the dialogues they maintain (or refuse) with other Portuguese contemporary poetics will be the starting point for some possible answers.