O fazer artístico de Leonardo Bastião: um poeta iletrado do Sertão do Pajeú (2008-2025).

Abstract

This dissertation turns its attention to the life and work of Leonardo Pereira Alves (Leonardo Bastião) and aims to investigate the author’s poetics, focusing on the work Minha Herança de Matuto (2018), the critical expression of his verses, as well as the ways of creating and acting that the poet imposes upon his production. In the preamble of the research, there is a propedeutic moment devoted to exploring the intricacies of popular poetry, delving into poetic sensibility, the inheritances received by the troubadour, and the convergences and divergences between erudite and popular culture. Furthermore, the study seeks, within the poet’s work, the presence of satire, fescennine verses, and connections with the horizon of divinity. The study is grounded in the assumptions of Cultural History and adopts an analytical approach toward the author’s poetics across different regimes of historicity, including backlands literature, through the works of authors such as Costa, Ferreira, Menezes, Rabelo, Sobrinho, among others. It also draws theoretical support from the historiography of Michel de Certeau, Roger Chartier, and Peter Burke, as well as from anthropological perspectives developed by Néstor García Canclini. The research examines how poetry portrays everyday life in such a critical and sensitive manner, operating as a tool of educational significance. Through historical and poetic analysis, it is demonstrated that Bastião’s work conveys the wisdom of the sertão through the imprint of his verses. The dissertation concludes that the pedagogical dimension surrounding the work can and should be incorporated into school textbooks, both in the municipality of Itapetim and throughout the state of Pernambuco.