The Real-Machine

“O cão sem plumas”, by João Cabral de Melo Neto, as Assemblage

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to read the poem by João Cabral de Melo Neto, “O cão sem plumas”, using theoretical tools from the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The central operator of the analysis is the concept of assemblage and its consequences (deterritorialization, ritornelo, etc.), linked to the notion of poem as a machine, postulated both by Cabral himself and by some of his main commentators. The consequence is the understanding of Cabral’s poetry as a great experimentation, which avoids any attempt at interpretative reduction, and the understanding that poetic language can be exercised as pure literality, approaching an immanent thought irreducible in any way of transcendence.