Melancia e expedito: cordel na fala e na escrita

Abstract

This work proposes a refletion on the trajetories of two cordel authors from Ceará, one from the backlands, the other from the sea coast: the workman-poet, typographer, from Juazeiro do Norte, Expedito Sebastião da Silva (1928-1997), and the fisherman-poet from Canoa Quebrada, Zé Melancia (1909-1977). We attempt to develop a comparative study on the light of the poetics of orality (Zumthor) and the correlation between the literary form and the social process (Antonio Candido), and try to assess to what point, for each poet, the performance of their offices, the feeling of belonging to a collectivity and the editorial process of their prodution interfered with the aesthetics of the work in question, and with their capacity of communication throughout the times.