In eternal dependence on good laughs and easy chewings

Abstract

The book História do Brasil (1932), by Murilo Mendes, presents four sequenced poems that prepare the proclaimed “cry” given on the banks of the Ipiranga stream, considered the initial moment of the political autonomy of Brazil: “Fico”, “Preparativos da Pescaria”; “Serenata da dependência’; and “A pescaria’. Altogether, the 60 poems that make up the book deal with historiographical episodes known from school textbooks. The set of poems was passed over by the author himself when he prepared his anthology, entitled Poesia (1925 -1955). Using the satirical devices, presenting other perspectives of reading and interpretation, Murilo Mendes performs a kind of carnival parade, removing the historical figures from their static and convenient pedestals.