The discursive strategy of the prosified cordel

Abstract

The cordel pamphlet [known as ‘string literature’] printed in verse, derived from the oral environment common in nineteenth century Brazil, from which it absorbed the basic poetic structure and developed a technique of printed composition and discoursive strategy characteristic of orality. Notwithstanding this, research undertaken in Bahia has found an ongoing traditionalization process of some pamphlets in prose – “veritable” tales. In this prosification process, the pamphlet underwent alterations, exchanging the original discoursive register of its style and instituting a new fabular construction. These findings led us to study this process and the changes that occurred during the period. This is what this paper seeks to analyze from the study of a few cordéis.