Oraliture and umbanda at “Song of Siruiz” (Grande Sertão: Veredas)

Abstract

The present essay upon the novel Grande Sertão: Veredas (1956), by João Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967), seeks, as a starting point, some evident traces of oralitura, a conceptual category that refers to verbal-acoustic expressions of a poetic nature, far beyond the boundaries of printed texts. The term was proposed in the 1960s by Piu Zirimu, as a counterpoint to the ethnocentric literary concept of “oral literature” or “orality”. The Rosian romance opens up space to varied manifestations of oralitura: sayings, songs, legends, myths, tales, songs, riddles, stories, votive greetings or interjections, prayers, narrativized votive processions, etc. We seek to cover Siruiz's song, expanded thru rhapsody assemblage by the bard Riobaldo himself, in order to highlight the meeting of multiple cultures and spiritualities in their varied diastratic, diachronic and diatopical manifestations - just like the language used by the novelist, who claims to be committed to the preparation of an “ecumenical omelette”. Thus, this essay seeks convergences between oralitura and Umbanda within the work of the polygraph writer from Minas Gerais.