A cidade revisitada em República dos Becos, de Luís Augusto Cassas

Abstract

The work analyzes the process of remembrance of the poetic subject of the memory of the city in Luís Augusto Cassas' work República dos becos (1981), a contemporary poet from Maranhão. The book highlights the urban landscape and its socio-spatial contrasts, involving the impacts of time and human action, as well as how society relates to it. Therefore, it proposes an analysis of reference marker spaces in the urban landscape, such as streets, corners, squares, old public places, and secular churches. The book continually reconstructs the urban landscape and imposes interventions upon it, causing changes through power relations and social agents. In this way, the study addresses discussions about the memory of the city from the analysis of the poems Imperador do largo do carmo, Missa convite, Assassinato da rua 28 de julho (em memória de um sobrado), Elegia antiga, Confessionário da sé (em homenagem a todos os pecadores) and Companhia de seguro. The study also highlights the relevance of Maranhão's poetic production and the notoriety of its writers, considering the factors that contributed to local literary formation. The research is qualitative and bibliographic, based on the views of Schollhammer (2009), who proposes discussions on Contemporary Brazilian Literature; of Paz (1982), to substantiate the ideas that surround the structural supports of the poem; of Zukin (1996), who discusses the urban landscape under the effects of modernity; of Pesavento (2005), which reflects on the city and urban heritage; of Halbwachs (1990) and Nora (1993), to substantiate the conceptions about memory and places of memory; and of Santos (2015), who problematizes the city's memory in literature, among other contributions. From the study, we understand that the city is endowed with meaning. In this sense, in Cassas' poetry, the perception of the poetic subject, articulated to the conditions of the present, focuses on the city's spaces constituted with cultural value, which contributes to the valorization of the memorial landscape.