Rebuilding Toledo: The intertextuality as a composition factor in the poem “Toledo”, by Murilo Mendes

Abstract

This article analyzes the poem “Toledo”, by Murilo Mendes, published in the book Tempo Espanhol, in 1959, from the notions of intertextuality. The poem presents the connection of Mendes with the architectural elements of the city of Toledo and some writers connected to this place, as Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and the Renaissance artist El Greco. This link is created by an intertextual dialogue established by the Brazilian poet in a kind of affective constructions of reminiscences and nostalgia. Inserting the poem cultural elements from Spain, the poet allows communication between your lyrical voice and the other voices introduced by the reference among texts. Besides the past, the writer also builds intertextual relationships among his poetic voice, his context and the influence that the Spanish city of Toledo raises him. From these contacts, emerges the picture of a changing country in a movement of tension between history, culture - the memories - and the necessity of current developments. It also appears the poetic voice’s personal conflict, who observes this conflict between nostalgia and loneliness.