THE ALLEGORY AND THE ‘FEMME FATALE’: THE BAUDELAIRIAN MODERNITY IN AUGUSTO DOS ANJOS

Abstract

Augusto dos Anjos’ poetry usually slides from the usual categorizations. Despite the hegemonic criticism the Brazilian literature of the early twentieth century receives, being described as old-fashioned, our gaze allocates Augusto dos Anjos in modernity itself. In the present work we seek to understand Augusto dos Anjos’ poetic project, giving a reading of one of his poems, “A meretriz”, in the light of the aesthetic concept of modernity by Charles Baudelaire, consolidated in one of his emblematic figures — the courtesan —, and by the perspective of the concept of allegory by Walter Benjamin.