Ideological aspects in the critical poetry of Murilo Mendes

Abstract

This essay aims to analyze some texts from the Italian period (1957-1975) by Murilo Mendes – published in Ipotesi (1977), A invenção do finito (1994) and L’occhio del poeta (2001) – where the relevance of the social criticism and ethical value intrinsic to the relevance of the art’s work, according to the aesthetic conception of the Brazilian poet. Although art criticism, social satire, poetry and memorialism are amalgamated in Murilo’s poetics, we prefer to distinguish between the texts written in prose by L’occhio del poeta and A invenção do finito and Ipotesi’s poems, which, although convergent, belong to different textual genres, with different strategies and intentions.