Gregório de Matos, our first anthropophagus

Abstract

The exponential figure of Gregório de Matos has been subject of many theoretical discussions through the years. This survey, there are yet two antagonist points of view linked to Gregório de Matos, on one side, there some researchers who defend him, on the other, some of them attack him. The first ones say this poet from Bahia was the first literary voice in Brazil, from the Baroque basis, while the last ones say he is a merely plagiarist of the Spanish poets from the 17^th century, without a real contribution to the development of Brazilian Literature. This article, which is the result of a doctoral research, follows the perspective this poet is an anthropophagus-baroque, devouring cultures, with an active participation in the process of our cultural and literary identity. Anchored by the critical thinking of brothers Campos, our work seeks to analyze and discuss of the hypothesis that Gregório de Matos was our first anthropophagus, and you can see in his poetry the intrinsic characteristics the anthropophagus movement, designed by Oswald de Andrade, during the 20^th century.