Von der Wäscheleine auf die Tonspur

Die brasilianische Literatura de Cordel als Medium einer sich wandelnden Populärkultur

Abstract

The term 'Literatura de Cordel' ('cordel' for short) usually summarises a primarily local Brazilian complex of literary and musical popular poetry common among the rather uneducated rural population. From the Sertão, a marginal interior region characterised by a peasant population suffering from long periods of drought and poverty, this poetry slowly made its way to the centre of Brazilian society. As an urban multimedia-based phenomenon cordel has nowadays become an important reference point in the contemporary cultural and artistic field in Brazil, influencing music, fine arts, literature, politics, carnival, radio, theater and film, as well as humanities and literary studies. Vice versa, these contemporary genres have continually
renewed the Literatura de Cordel and initiated new ways of dealing with it. In the second half of the twentieth century, the ongoing discourse about the Literatura de Cordel and the culture and art of the rural Northeastern expanded to the national level. Nowadays, young urban rap musicians and street art mural painters participate in the steady renewal of this multimedia-based art.