Denrizing In the Corner of Emigrants: subversions of the Cordel do Fogo Encantado

Abstract

Oral Poetry is usually associated with the so-called Etno texts, in other words, speeches that the community develops about itself, discourses linked to processes of legitimation of collective authorship. However, the oral poetry also manifests itself in products radically different, in which the statement of identity is blurred for the sake of discussion about the uprooting - situations when men and woman try out different experiences from those known in their background. In an apparent contradiction, some of the cultural products that best exploit the sense of rootlessness are created by artists viscerally connected to Etno texts. This allows us to understand that being a part of a community is inextricably linked to feelings of not belonging, also to the sense of foreignness and exile. The article examines one of these texts, specifically the poem entitled Canto dos emigrantes (The emigrants song), by Alberto da Cunha Melo, transmuted into a song by Cordel do Fogo Encantado. The goal is to identify and discuss how the uprooting is verbally and rhythmically portrayed, becoming the very heart of the composition.