The Poetics of Fireflies: Enchantment, Disenchantment, and Re-enchantment in “As margens da alegria” by Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

Drawing on the dialectic of the enchantment and disenchantment of the world, this article examines how it enables the tracing of paths toward reenchantment, whose promise is found in art. We call this approach the poetics of fireflies. To develop this perspective, the article follows the journey of the protagonist in Guimarães Rosa’s short story “As margens da alegria”. Through the passage between enchantment and disenchantment, the boy rediscovers the subtle and simple glow of joy, found in the very act of storytelling. Confronted with the suffering brought about by the ruins of an initial enchantment, he unveils a renewed way of seeing the world in the fragile light that emerges when all other lights go out and meaning fades: this is the poetics of fireflies.