Manumission by the verse

Abstract

In this review, Peron Rios presents the collectanea A Escravidão na Poesia Brasileira: do século XVII ao século XXI (Editora Record, 2022), organized by the poet and literary critic Alexei Bueno. The anthology depicts black slavery in Brazilian poetry and shows, through the aesthetic and historical value of the selected poems, the marks this institution left in Brazil’s artistic production. The volume is not intended to be a history book, but a poetry one, presenting poems that are intrinsically linked to the historical period in which they were born and from which they stem. On that account, Rios, throughout his review, emphasizes the richness of the collection and portrays the characteristics and singularities of the verses presented in the book organized by Bueno, allowing the reader to observe history through poetry’s specific lens.