Do manuscrito ao folheto de cordel: uma literatura escrita para ser oralizada.

Abstract

Considerations on String Literature as literature in process, which has gone through several changes, since its initial production in several states in the Northeast. Various examples are highlighted, among them, the epic manuscripts collected by Euclides da Cunha during the Canudos war, written to be read aloud. The study focuses on the specific characteristic of being a literature aimed for the “ears” than for the eyes, since the beginning, which would be difficult to prove without the studies of several researchers on the string literature belonging to Mário de Andrade. This collection includes publications from other states and some countries, which make use of the same “editorial formula”, identified by the kind of editing in brochure, with the cover of the paper in white or colored and in newsprint inside, but containing a very different production from what is known as string literature. The collection of Mário de Andrade was also a key source for studying the variation of designations used by the popular poets of the Northeast, as well as the starting point for two essays written by Mário de Andrade. Another aspect this text discusses concerns the traditional audience composed of readers/listeners or listeners/readers, found in field research, which bring in their memories one or more stories, published in brochures, decorated, when they were still children, but which emerge whenever there is an opportunity to “tell” the verses or sing them.