Poetry, Criticism and Autofiction: Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Ruy Duarte deCarvalho”

Sonia Miceli

pages: 69 – 82
published online: 22 july 2013

ABSTRACT
In João César Monteiro’s documentary on Sophia de Mello Breyner Andreseni and in Ruy Duarte de Carvalho’sii critical essay on a poem by António José Forte, the Portuguese poet and the Angolan writer play with their own image, striving to draw continuity between poetry and life. This, nevertheless, seems to be belied by certain clues within the film and the text, showing the inevitable fictionality of the poetic gesture as the invention of a voice. Starting from the analysis of the documentary and of the critique, I will outline the strategies that both poets use to build an image of themselves. These strategies fit within the concept of autofiction, which is also explicitly referred to by Ruy Duarte de Carvalho regarding his writing. Close attention will be paid to the role of the signature, which works in both texts as a point of connection between the inside and the outside of the text, while it also questions that very claim of continuity and transparency of the writer’s figure.

Key words: Poetry; auto-critique; poet’s voice; writer’s image.