Joaquim Manuel Magalhães: 50 years of the most radical poetics of destruction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37508/rcl.2025.n54a1351Keywords:
Joaquim Manuel Magalhães, Poetics of destruction, Ruined landscape, Poetics of resistance, Contemporary Portuguese poetryAbstract
The year 2024 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the activity of the poet Joaquim Manuel Magalhães, who has been developing a body of work that has had a great impact on the Portuguese literary field since 1974, when he published his first book of poetry, Consequências do lugar. In this article, we will present a brief timeline of this renowned Portuguese writer and critic, some of his most relevant works and poems, seeking to situate him in the contemporary poetic panorama of Portugal. With a work often considered controversial, Magalhães is, however, recognized for his resistant writing, through which he assumed, both in the field of lyrical creation and in the theoretical plane of analysis, a critical position in relation to contemporaneity, by identifying deviations in post-revolutionary Portuguese society. With sarcastic and biting language, he spoke of a reality dominated by ruins, both social and economic, a reality that is often presented in his poems through images of decadence and degradation. This deteriorated imagery is reflected in the discourse and took on striking formal contours when the author decided to literally destroy all of his work published up until 2010 by releasing Um toldo vermelho, a single volume in which he brought together only fragments of poems published in 36 years of activity as a writer, which underwent a complete operation of transformation and annihilation, which made this book become a landmark of the so-called poetics of destruction. The author repeated this action in 2018 with the book Para comigo and, in 2021, with the publication of Canoagem.
Downloads
References
ALVES, Ida. Olhares contemporâneos de Sebastião Uchoa Leite e Joaquim Manuel Magalhães. Revista Signótica, Goiás, v. 25, n. 1, p. 21-33, jan.-jun. 2013. Disponível em: https://revistas.ufg.br/sig/article/view/25713/15414. Acesso em: 06 ago. 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5216/sig.v25i1.25713
BOTELHO, Ana Carolina. Imensas cidades povoadas de despovoamento. Uma análise da poética da destruição em Joaquim Manuel Magalhães. Revista Desassossego, São Paulo, v. 13, n. 26, p. 92-106, jul./dez 2021. Disponível em: https://www.revistas.usp.br/desassossego/article/view/188580. Acesso em: 08 ago. 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2175-3180.v13i26p92-106
COMPAGNON, Antoine. O demônio da teoria: literatura e senso comum. Tradução de Cleonice P. B. Mourão e Consuelo Fortes Santiago. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 1999.
LOPES, Silvina Rodrigues. Literatura, defesa do atrito. Belo Horizonte: Editora Chão da Feira, 2012.
MAGALHÃES, Joaquim Manuel. Alta noite em alta fraga. Lisboa: Relógio D` Água, 2001a.
MAGALHÃES, Joaquim Manuel. Consequências do lugar. Lisboa: Relógio D` Água, 2001b.
MAGALHÃES, Joaquim Manuel. Odiaria ser um totalitário do gosto. [Entrevista concedida a] Hugo Pinto Santos. Público, Lisboa, 26 out. 2018. Disponível em: https://www.publico.pt/2018/10/26/culturaipsilon/noticia/magalhaes-1848390. Acesso em: 06 ago. 2024.
MAGALHÃES, Joaquim Manuel. Os dias, pequenos charcos. Lisboa: Editorial Presença, 1981.
MAGALHÃES, Joaquim Manuel. Um toldo vermelho. Lisboa: Relógio D` Água, 2010.
MOREIRA JÚNIOR, Orlando. Cidade partida: segregação induzida e auto-segregação urbana. Caminhos da Geografia, Uberlândia, v. 11, n. 33, p. 1-10, mar. 2010. Disponível em: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/caminhosdegeografia/article/view/15899/8974. Acesso em: 13 nov. 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14393/RCG113315899
PAZ, Octávio. O arco e a lira. Tradução de Olga Savary. 2. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1982.
RICOEUR, Paul. O processo metafórico como cognição, imaginação e sentimento. In: SACKS, Sheldon (org.). Da metáfora. São Paulo: Editora da PUC/SP (Educ) e Pontes, 1992. p. 145-160.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Tereza Maria Tavares dos Santos Jorge

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in Convergência Lusíada agree with the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
Revista Convergência Lusíada is licensed under a Creative Commons - Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional.