The poetics of own error as autonomy and liberation in António Maria Lisboa, Mário Cesariny and Luiz Pacheco

Abstract

In 1950, António Maria Lisboa gave two public readings of his manifesto Erro Proprio, a text in which the most important theses of his critical thinking converge. Among other subjects, this text proposes an understanding of the poetic condition based on the valorization of the individual path built from the full affirmation of errors that inevitably characterize all experiences, especially those that claim to break with the standards established by society. António Maria Lisboa’s theses had great repercussion in the anti-group Os Surrealistas, namely in the constitution of the concept of Abjectionism. Mário Cesariny and Luiz Pacheco were two of the authors who had the most critical dialogue with the content of the text Erro Proprio, reading in different ways the association between freedom, autonomy, and error, and adapting this association to their own authorial projects. This text sets out the main theoretical conclusions of António Maria Lisboa, presenting some examples of the critical dialogue he initiated. In this way, the question of the own error is situated at the heart of the path between the Abjectionism of the 40s and the Neo-Abjectionism of Luiz Pacheco, in the 60s.