The folklorists and the construction of the “repentista” as a symbol of the Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

The present article analyzes the representations of the “repentistas violeiros” as shown in the works of folklorists. Considering a timeframe that encompasses the first decades of the twentieth century, the period in which the propagation of the “repentista” as a symbol of the Brazilian Northeast began. At first, we conceptualized the practice of “repente”, a typical practice from the countryside that starts to expand to the big coastal cities. Next, we show the importance of folklorists (especially Rodrigues de Carvalho, Leonardo Mota and Câmara Cascudo) in collecting information about this element of popular culture. However, one should take precautions when analyzing them as research sources due to the interpretations and representations that are to be found in their works. Therefore, we use Edward P. Thompson, Michel de Certeau and Durval Muniz as theoretical references. Finally, we address the need of folklorists, in a regionalist context, to introduce the “repentista” as a symbol of the Brazilian Northeast, maintaining a classist distance from them in their works.