Distraction: heroic attitude before the metropolis

Abstract

Considering distraction as the heroic ethos of  modernity, I intend to analyze the perceptive changes brought about by the advance of the productive forces under capitalism; and the subsequent apprehension  of this change by four contemporary poets, namely Liv Lagerblad, Heyk Pimenta, Alberto Pucheu and Eucanaã Ferraz. Each of these poets brings distraction as what Walter Benjamin classified as inner form. In all cases, distraction appears as a poetic force before the danger of annihilation in big cities. This reflection is the basis for another, another, yet concerning the relations between poetry and politics, thinking with Jacques Rancière its position on the "distribution of the sensible". Finally, a resumption of Baudelaire, a master of distraction, seems to be inevitable.