See (come/hear) Torquato Neto

Abstract

This article intends to understand Torquato Neto’s poetics stem from two different versions of a same poem (“vir ver ou/ vir”), emphasizing his singularity in the Brazilian poetry of the 1970’s. Beforehand, it seeks to observe a constitutive instability of Torquato’s work, evidenced by the lack of an individual book, on the one hand, and on other by his multifaceted practices – such as songwriter, journalist, photographer, actor, scriptwriter, etc. In spite of this versatility, however, it should consider that Torquato Neto always claims himself as poet (“mother of arts”), which obviously affects all other activities. Moreover, if Torquato’s constellation can be read as “unskilled new sensibility”, it’s also clear in his work the impact of Brazilian concrete poets due to their theoretical reflections and artistic achievements on 1950’s and 1960’s. Therefore, the unusual visuality of this poem (“vir ver ou/vir”) can enlighten the relationship between Torquato Neto and concretist premises, bringing implications for understand the own concrete poetry on 1970’s.