This chapter charts the artistic trajectory of northeastern Brazilian poet, singer, writer, playwright and actor José Paes de Lira, known as Lirinha, situating his experiments as a long-standing attempt to reject and revise the regional folklorism within which audiences and critics often received his performances. The chapter examines Lirinha’s work, both as the visionary behind the nationally acclaimed group Cordel do Fogo Encantado (1998–2010) and in his subsequent musical and theatrical efforts. It also traces Lirinha’s turn away from folklorism as a reaction against narratives of “cultural rescue” that pressured him to uphold static notions of cultural roots. Reinforcing an overarching argument within this volume, Sharp argues that Lirinha’s work is culturally transformative within its particular field of cultural production, even if it is not always audible as experimental.
The practice of parodying: YouTube as a hybrid field of cultural production
