Dead Clowns, Poets and other Outcasts

Abstract

The essay intends to analyze the publication, in Kosmos review (1907), of “Death of Clown”, by Gonzaga Duque. There are at least two other versions in books published in 1914 and 1996. The choice of this specific publication stems from aspects considered decisive for some of the senses that can be discussed in the text. Easily assimilated to a metapoetic interpretation that calls into question art as experimentation, “Death of the clown” seems to demonstrate, also, a certain interweaving between what concerns prosaic forms and what concerns poetic forms, in that specific historical moment. It would be possible to associate this case and more recently proposed theoretical questions that would lead to the discussion of the possibility of some transit between two ideals of writing (a “high” ideal and a “low” ideal). A further question concerns the close observable relationship, in Kosmos’s version, between the text itself and some ilustrations by “Klixto” (Calixto Cordeiro).