O caos e a neblina: Vanildo Brito e a geração 59

Abstract

Fifty-two years of the Generation 59! The small anthology of poetry with the same title as the generation, over time, branched out into various aesthetic directions of the movement. Poetry, essays, visual arts, cinema, music, theater, in short, any and all creative expressions brought, in the transition from the 1950s to the 1960s of the last century, the necessary renewing halo to tradition, while at the same time making it possible to discover new paths. Without breaking radically with the models of the past, especially if we think in exclusively poetic terms, as later groups and trends did, the generation 59 reacted, unleashing, amid the various activities it undertook, the verve of the critical spirit and the ability to definitively demarcate, within the scope of the history of local culture, its artistic singularity. Not only through the aforementioned anthology, but above all through A União nas Letras e das Artes, a Sunday supplement of the oldest newspaper in Paraíba, the young people of this generation, led by the poet Vanildo Brito, gave vent to their aesthetic and intellectual concerns. On the other hand, the João Pessoa Poetry Club, the Silence Club, the Surrealist Exhibition and the so-called “Rondas Líricas” complement the map of interventions by poets, critics, painters, filmmakers and playwrights in the city’s cultural landscape. It is, therefore, a little of this history that mobilizes my critical eye here and now. This book is a brief introduction to the debate on the Generation 59 and, in particular, on the poetry of Vanildo Brito, and also proves to be a timely and deserved tribute, albeit a posteriori, within the anniversaries held in 2009. The first chapter (“Generation 59 and Poetry: reaction and concerns”) has, as a starting point for the critical analysis, the texts of the anthology and the consultation of the pages of A União nas Letras e nas Artes, particularly the issues from August to December 1959. It can be seen here that, in addition to the poets and poems commented on, the contribution of the Generation 59 demonstrates a special weight in what concerns the visual arts, cinema and theater, without forgetting, above all, the critical presences of Geraldo Carvalho and Vanildo Brito himself. Names that are not part of the anthology constantly collaborate with the supplement of A União, thus configuring the body and the varied semantic and ideological tones of the movement. In the visual arts: Raul Córdula, Hermano José, Elcir Dias, Ivan Freitas and Archidy Picado; in cinema: Linduarte Noronha, Vladimir Carvalho, Jurandy Moura and João Ramiro Farias de Mello; in theater and folklore research.