A transparência do canto e o obstáculo do mundo: O tempo no modernismo de mário de andrade

In this article I focus on the role of the collective chant as it postulates popular potency in the work of Mário de Andrade. I analyze how the quest for the vox populi permeates Andrade’s thought, and how the collective voice conditions a sense of enchantment as it guards us from modernization, a concept also present in the work of Alfredo Bosi. In this arc that links Andrade to Bosi, the role the popular subject plays in their imagination of Brazil is visible. The analysis of this role enables us to revisit old topics in the light of contemporary contexts. After all, in contemporary Brazil, whatever can be identified as popular potency is the object of desire and fear, as though people, as a category, were an instance in dispute on which as many hopes as doubts are placed.