A Living Literature in cantankerous metaphysical reflections

Presence and critique of Modernism in “Cântico Negro” by José Régio and “Tabacaria” by Álvaro de Campos

Abstract

In human intellectual and cultural developments, all proposals for broad rational iconoclastic tendencies result in new systematizations, which necessarily rely on beliefs, dogmas, creeds and rites. These experiences are at the core of “Cântico” Negro” and “Tabacaria”, in which the poetic enunciation pervades the intellectual foundations that sustain rationality as well as the diverse modes of expressions of human knowledge through the various traditional forms of understanding. In José Régio, the transformations on how literary critics and poets understand reality, starting within particular human experiences, integrating classicism and modernism, lead the author´s reflections to establish the idea of Living Literature. In Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro’s disciple, the continuous awakening of dogmatic sleep does not allow humans to rise up from their chimeras; rather, it inserts them in perennial illusions while articulating the senses and mind.