Murilo Mendes, a disciplina do indisciplinado

Abstract

With the rebelliousness characteristic of his self-description as an “experimental youth,” Murilo Mendes creates a critical distance between his poetic consciousness and his liberty of action. With the term, he retrospectively characterizes his entire literary production, from the poetry of the 1930s to the 1960s and 70s. To be indisciplined is to challenge norms and introduce thematic and graphic innovations, such as linguistic play, kitsch, graffiti, miniaturization and new tendencies of visual arts and electronic communications. Murilo is always attentive to the independence of the word and the musicality of poetry. Indiscipline is his self-described source of expression and method, thus a discipline in reverse that motives his poetic imagination.