Profanated portraits: an analyze about death and photograph in Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s poetry

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the functions that photography plays in the relation that Drummond’s lyric self establishes with death in the poems “Os mortos” from Lição de coisas (1962), “Os mortos de sobrecasaca” from Sentimento do mundo (1940), “Os rostos imóveis” from José (1940) and “Necrológio dos desiludidos do amor” from Brejo das almas (1932),using the perspective of Giorgio Agamben (2007) Susan Sontag (2004), Georges Didi-Huberman (1998) and Joan Fontcuberta (2010). The methodology we use is the bibliographic one from the comparative studies perspective. This paper argues that photography, as a Drummond theme, will go against the common discourse on photography, in which it is seen as a mere representation of reality or as a faithful and reliable record of the past. Thus, it will present itself as a fragile device which constantly reminds him of the impossibility of permanence of memory, contributing to a continuous mismatch between the lyrical self and the dead, which is expressed in an ironic and defiant tone, as well as in a difficulty of elaborating the past.