No revolution is innocent: lessons from experimental poetry for 25 April 1974

Abstract

Portuguese experimental poetry (PO-EX) is an avant-garde literary tradition that aligned itself with the rest of the arts in the fight against the political and cultural dictatorship that swept through the Portuguese 20th century. It did so, however, from the perspective of the need to subvert discourses and their modes of representation. Poets such as E. M. de Melo e Castro, Ana Hatherly, António Aragão, Salette Tavares, José-Alberto Marques, among others, were at the forefront of the cultural and literary revolution that 25 April brought about. In their theoretical and artistic production, we can find ways of critically revisiting the postulates, ideas and values of the 1974 democratic revolution that constitute lessons, i.e. scores for dialogue and modes of critical action that PO-EX bequeathed to posterity. This article analyses some of these works, focusing on the reflexive revisiting of the revolutionary potential of these creations and lessons.