Coutin and Manuelzin: some reflections brought to life from the correspondence between Manuel Bandeira and Ribeiro Couto

Abstract

This author is the editor of a volume of the correspondence between Manuel Bandeira and Ribeiro Couto in the nineteen twenties. These letters are of interest not only with respect to the intellectual standing of the two writers, but also because, among other things, they constitute a precious record of Brazilian modernism. This period witnessed the take off and consolidation of Ribeiro Couto's literary career as well as the emergence and publication of Manuel Bandeira's two most outstanding volumes of poetry. The letters of these writers are part of that collection of documents, supplementary to the main body of the complete works, that can serve as true sources for analyzing the creative process itself and the intricacies of the literary craft. They are integral to an archaeology that seeks to reconstitute the very process of creation; that aims to "bring to life," so to say, in its immediacy, in its fullness, the gropings, distractions and stumblings, the uncertainty of the creative act as such. Going through the set of 188 letters written by the two poets and friends, the article tries to identify some of the motivations and of the concrete intellectual concerns of the correspondents, both as artists and as personalities of the literary scene of their time.