Poetry that Tells (Hi)story

Abstract

This text aims at analysing and comparing poems that are characterized by a “romance” way of telling the singular story of a real or fi ctional character whose adventures are disastrous or go against his original whims. Our starting point is a Carolingian “romance”, from the Middle Ages, that may be one of the motifs of “Moda da cadeia de Porto Alegre”, from “Clã do Jaboti”, by Mario de Andrade. We then compare it with the popular romance “Juliana”, collected by Magalhães in Pernambuco in the early twentieth century, and with a romance called “Santa Marta”, which is nowadays sung by Uruguayan popular singer Mario Carrero. These poems reveal ways of making history of identity, as the presence of the genre “romance” in both Portuguese and Spanish Americas highlights the persistence of medieval Iberian culture on American land. One could say that the same culture has survived in different natures. The main characteristic of this literary production, which certainly comes from the oral tradition and is consequently orally-oriented, is its ability to communicate through rhyme and ethical content.