Eles devoraram tudo: primitivismo, barbárie e as vanguardas

O primitivismo é um aspecto fun­damental do modernismo brasileiro e encon­tra na obra de Oswald de Andrade uma das suas mais importantes expressões. A “Poesia Pau Brasil” e a “antropofagia” mobilizavam o primitivismo para, como dizia Oswald de An­drade, acertar os ponteiros da literatura bra­sileira com o relógio da literatura universal. A ideia era superar o sentimento de atraso e a necessidade de uma identidade nacional; a antropofagia era uma metáfora para uma cul­tura que tinha como características a absor­ção e a transmutação constantes de modelos estrangeiros. O objetivo deste artigo é explorar os sentidos e ambiguidades que o primitivismo assumiu em alguns dos melhores momentos do modernismo de Oswald de Andrade em diálogo com a sua presença nas vanguardas europeias.Primi­tivism is a crucial feature of Brazilian moder­nism and it has in Oswald de Andrade’s work one of its major expressions. The “pau brasil poetry” and “anthropophagy” resorted primi­tivism to, as Oswald de Andrade said, set the hands of Brazilian literature to the time of uni­versal literature. The idea was to overcome the felling of delay and the necessity of a national identity; anthropophagy was a metaphor for a culture that was characterized by the persis­tent absorption and transmutation of foreign models. The aim of this paper is to explore the meanings and ambiguities that primitivism has assumed in some of the best moments of Oswald de Andrade’s modernism also in dia­logue with its presence in the European avant-gardes.Primi­tivism is a crucial feature of Brazilian moder­nism and it has in Oswald de Andrade’s work one of its major expressions. The “pau brasil poetry” and “anthropophagy” resorted primi­tivism to, as Oswald de Andrade said, set the hands of Brazilian literature to the time of uni­versal literature. The idea was to overcome the felling of delay and the necessity of a national identity; anthropophagy was a metaphor for a culture that was characterized by the persis­tent absorption and transmutation of foreign models. The aim of this paper is to explore the meanings and ambiguities that primitivism has assumed in some of the best moments of Oswald de Andrade’s modernism also in dia­logue with its presence in the European avant-gardes