Tropical ginsberg

20
by contemporary international trends.” 23 Dunn sees the manifesto as
being,
Structured around a binary tension between “the
forest and the school” in the genisis of Brazilian
culture[…]the school connotes lettered society,
with its formal institutions and technological
resources, and the forest serves as natural
metaphor for that which was excluded or
marginalized from the economic, political, and
cultural centers of power and prestige.
The second manifesto was the “Manifesto Antropofágico,” 24
published in 1928. In this manifesto, according to Dunn, Andrade
suggested “there was no national ‘essence,’ only a dynamic and conflictridden
process of critical assimilation, or ‘deglutition,’ of various
cultural influences.” 25 With this in mind the tropicalistas began to
question the idea of ‘national’ music, or ‘traditional’ music – which will
be discussed later on in chapters 4, and 5 – while also promoting much
debate over what was ‘popular,’ and what was ‘refined.’
This complex assimilation process which the tropicalistas
proposed with some songs can also be seen in the poetry of Allen
Ginsberg. Cláudio Willer suggests that Ginsberg and the Beats
“[p]rocederam à devoração antropofágica da cultura oficial, e à
incorporação e revitalização daquela que estava à margem do sistema,
que o establishment havia varrido para debaixo do tapete.” 26 According
to the author, one of the innovative and daring sides of the beats is their
ability to make “a ponte entre o modernismo anglo-americano, de Ezra
Pound e William Carlos Williams, e a vanguarda francesa,
principalmente o surrealismo.” 27 It becomes evident that what Ginsberg
and the tropicalistas proposed with their art was something provocative
23 Dunn, Christopher. Brutality Garden: Tropicália and The Emergence of a Brazilian
Counterculture. North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 15.
24 Which reads, “Anthropophagy Manifesto.” Author’s translation
25 Dunn, Christopher. Brutality Garden: Tropicália and The Emergence of a Brazilian
Counterculture. North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 18.
26 Willer, Claudio. Uivo, Kaddish e Outros Poemas. Trans. Cláudio Willer. Porto Alegre:
L&PM, 2006. 10. Which reads, “Proceded in the canibalistic devouring of the official culture,
and in the incorporation and revitalization of that which was at the margin of the system, that
the establishment had swept off to underneath the rug.” Author’s translation.
27 Ibid. Which reads “the bridge between Anglo-American Modernism, of Ezra Pound, and
William Carlos Williams, and French avant-garde, especially the surrealism.” Author’s
translation.