Haroldo De Campos: A Dialogue with the Brazilian Concrete Poet

This book is based on a series of papers that were presented at conferences at Oxford and Yale universities in honour of Haroldo de Campos as a poet, critic and translator. It is important for its critical focus on the concrete aesthetic in prose and poetry as well as the close-up of Haroldo de Campos by major names in international literary studies. A founder of the movement of concrete poetry in Brazil in the 1950s, Haroldo de Campos (1929-2003) was a distinguished essayist, translator, and theorist. Nicknamed by German semiotician Max Bense the locomotive of Sao Paulo, Campos’s influence has been profound. He changed the course of Brazilian literature and Portuguese language poetry in over fifty years of devotion to their international and comparative dimensions. Caetano Veloso alludes to Campos in his songs, the Tropicalia movement made him known to an entire new generation, and the writing of poetry in Brazil came to reflect concrete techniques and materials.