Popcretos, 1964-1966: Sound Matters in Brazilian Concrete Poetry

Marcelo Nogueira (The Johns Hopkins University)

March 27, 5:00 pm

Gilman Hall 479

The lecture investigates the dynamic relationship between sound and visual elements in Brazilian concrete poetry, drawing on sonic and literary theory. Emerging in the mid-1950s, concrete poetry marks a pivotal moment in the constructivist tradition of Latin American poetry and art. It focuses on Augusto de Campos’s Popcretos series, created in 1964 as a response to that year’s military coup in Brazil. By examining how its engagement with notions of noise and silence establishes a framework through which fragmented language and imagery unfold, it argues that even in the most ostensive visual poems, the auditory emerges as a generative element to explore poetic and political themes.