The Enigma of Meaning and the Mystery of Accident in AnaHatherly’s Archaic Work

Abstract

Ana Hatherly is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in Portuguese Experimental Poetry. More specifically, her poetic, visual, and theoretical work stands out for its historical research into the visuality of writing, establishing connections with productions from the Western tradition, as in the study A experiência do prodígio (The Experience of the Prodigy), as well as with Chinese writing in Mapas da imaginação e memória (Maps of Imagination and Memory). In doing so, Hatherly highlights the limitations of the reader's interpretative act as a mere decipherer of enigmas, whether in her appropriation of calligraphic gesturality or in the understanding of the magical and esoteric framework of visual poetry. This work, therefore, proposes a reading of Ana Hatherly's poetry (A Idade da Escrita [The Age of Writing], O Pavão Negro [The Black Peacock]) in dialogue with her theoretical production that thematizes the signifying potentials of writing. To this end, it is based on theoretical assumptions that address a non-hermeneutic approach to interpretation, as well as an approximation of her work with that of Fernando Pessoa, particularly that of his heteronym Alberto Caeiro. Thus, the construction of an experimental poetics of the illegible, the arabesque, and the fragile mystery of the "black peacock of writing" is brought to light.