From sines to “Tribos de Néon”: Al Berto and the end of the world

Abstract

The Portuguese poet Al Berto showed particular interest in the ambivalence of catastrophes images, whose paroxysm is the notion of the end of the world. In this perspective, the poem, on the one hand, bears the apocalyptic voice that announces fear and pessimism of our time; and, on the other, it affirms itself against the desertification of the affections and in defense of the subjective experience. Thus, we move from a collective and teleological reading to a kind of intimate eschatology, since it is precisely in one’s intimacy that the tragic outcome is elaborated and revealed. In this context, themes such as shipwrecks, epidemics, and environmental disasters recur throughout his poetry, recover and subvert traditional representations of fear, and challenge notions like technological progress, security, and control. We will therefore seek to highlight and discuss the poetic impetus of Al Berto, who, so openly, so dense and so obsessive, has thrown himself into the depths of fear, into the apocalypses of the subject, and into the vigilant attention of a time of endings/end of times.