Augusto de Campos: Invention Poetry and Sign Metamorphosis

Abstract

This article is focused on expanding the concept of “invention” in order to analyze the theory of signs spread by the poetics of invention in Brazilian poetry, particularly in the poetry of Augusto de Campos. Therefore, we initially consider some metaphor theories, questioning the classical model of representation, as did Benjamin, Blumenberg and Ricoeur, to demonstrate – as we approach the sign as understood by the poetics of invention – that a theory that emphasizes the metamorphic qualities of the sign suggests a theory of fiction. We will show that the poetry of invention does not limits itself to the play between different sign codes, but acts on the limit of language naming the new, expressing, as it is characteristic of this poetry, the ineffable. This because the concrete dimension of language is restored, although it does not restrain poetry of invention to concrete poetry, as can be seem in some poems of Augusto de Campos.