The secret sonnet in Pauliceia Desvairada

Abstract

Inspired by the centenary of the Week of Modern Art that is celebrated in 2022, this article is dedicated to the analysis of the poem that opens the book published by Mário de Andrade in 1922, Pauliceia Desvairada. With the help of reflections from discursive semiotics, we seek to shed light on the sonnet that is hidden behind the free verses of “Inspiração”. In defense of this reading path, which intends immanence and appearance, we summon the mereological dimension of meaning, that is, the influence of the relations between parts and totality. In this sense, the reading of the poem in question is permeated by the other texts that make up the work, among them the “Prefácio Interessantíssimo” that indicates instructions for a poetics that guides the reading of the rest of the book. Thus, by promoting a doubly immanent analysis of the poem, which, without subjugating the reading to external data, lets the text reveal the internal structures that make up its poeticity (and modernity), we try to pay homage that escapes the biographical and historical tones that, with their merits, seem to dominate the laurels of this centenary.