The thin blade of words

The thin blade of words collects essays by Leda Maria Martins, one of the main references in contemporary Brazilian thought. In this book, the poet, essayist, playwright and professor presents what she describes as "thought exercises” on themes she finds pleasurable and intriguing objects of reflection.

Among them, contemporary theater from names such as Jhonny Salaberg and Dione Carlos; Nelson Rodrigues’s modern theater with Senhora dos Afogados; Machado de Assis’s literature; Solano Trindade’s poetry; and visual arts, in writing about Sonia Gomes and Jota Mombaça.

This collection of critical essays, that might be read as an anthology of Black poetics, exposes the vitality of Leda Maria Martins’s thought and how it reverberates in distinct works, in constant dialogue with her other books and theoretical keys — through themes such as spiral time, oraliterature, crossroads, and body-canvas, which have inspired so many artistic, academic and curatorial productions.

Excerpt
“In the white leather of paper, in these parchments, the insubordinate work of rhetoric create insurgences not only in thematic, social innovation, but, mainly, in the poetic elaboration with language technologies, privileging constructions and forms from other textual, oral, and written, matrixes, among them the African and African-Brazilian repertoires and estates, in experimentations that cross and affect the conventional literary canon, introducing new perspectives for elaborating and creating aesthetic languages and, transmuting genres and formats, transform creative experience.”

About the author
Leda Maria Martins was born in Rio de Janeiro and lives in Belo Horizonte. Poet, essayist, playwright and professor, she’s a PhD of Letters/Comparative Literature from Minas Gerais Federal University (UFMG), Masters of Arts from Indiana University, and Bachelor of Letters from UFMG. She holds post-doctoral degrees in Performance Studies from New York University (NYU) and Performance and Ritual from Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). Leda is also Rainha de Nossa Senhora das Mercês do Reinado de Nossa Senhora do Rosário do Jatobá, in Belo Horizonte. Her work has been the theme of symposiums such as Spiraling Time: Intermedial Conversations in Latin American Arts (UC Berkeley, 2013) and Leda Maria Martins: Pensamentos e Poéticas (Universidade de Brasília/Universidade Federal da Bahia/Universidade Federal de Sergipe, 2021, 2022 and 2023). A retired UFMG professor, she has also taught at the Ouro Preto Federal University and has been a Visiting Professor at Tisch Shool of the Arts and Universidade Federal Fluminense. With Cobogó, she has published Performances do tempo espiralar, poéticas do corpo-tela (2021). Among other books, she has authored O moderno teatro de Qorpo-Santo (Ed. UFMG, 1991), A cena em sombras (Perspectiva, 1995/2023) and Afrografias da memória (Perspectiva e Mazza Edições, 1995/2021), as well as the poetry books Cantigas de amares (independent, 1981) and Os dias anônimos (Ed. 7Letras, 1999). In 2017, in Belo Horizonte (MG), the Leda Maria Martins Award for Black Performing Arts was created to recognize and celebrate Black performing arts from Brazil. In 2022, Martins was awarded the Milu Villela Award from Fundação Itaú Cultural. In 2023, she was awarded the Prêmio Mestre em Artes Integradas from Funarte. From December 7th 2024 to March 30th 2025 she was honored with the Ocupação Leda Maria Martins by Itaú Cultural, in São Paulo. In 2025, Performances do tempo espiralar was published in English by Duke University Press under the title Performances of Spiral Time.

Specifications
Title A fina lâmina da palavra [The thin blade of words]
Author Leda Maria Martins
Language Portuguese
Page count 264
Publisher Cobogó
ISBN 978-65-5691-179-3
Cover Mariana Misk
Format Softcover
Size 14x21 cm
Year 2025
Price R$ 92.00