The Tounas of Bumba-meu-boi and the singer in the post-modernity context

Abstract

: Knowing the place of the tunes of the kind “bumba-meu-boi” within the set of literary discourses is a matter of understanding it as a hybrid genre that crosses semiotic systems related to sound, rhythm and word. In the same way as the song – a genre that joins melody and lyrics – these tunes have their ground in the word, which plays the role of a vehicle of intervention in a decentralized and plural society, such as the current consumption society. This work intends to reflect on the place of such art expressions within the postmodern context, and to understand the projections of the singing subject that contructs images by means of her poetic voice and by her performance. We are going to fall back on the Fredric Jameson's studies to understand the insertion of this singing poet into the multiple dimensions of the present days, and on the Paul Zumthor's readings about oral literature to understand images projected by performance. Such literary analysis opens possibilities that release conventional, mainstream points of view to new looks that allow even more relativizations and understandings of different world orders.