RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 A transparência do canto e o obstáculo do mundo JF Luso-Brazilian Review JO Luso-Braz Rev FD University of Wisconsin Press SP 103 OP 114 DO 10.3368/lbr.55.2.103 VO 55 IS 2 A1 Pedro Meira Monteiro YR 2018 UL http://lbr.uwpress.org/content/55/2/103.abstract AB In this article I focus on the role of the collective chant as it postulates popular potency in the work of Mário de Andrade. I analyze how the quest for the vox populi permeates Andrade’s thought, and how the collective voice conditions a sense of enchantment as it guards us from modernization, a concept also present in the work of Alfredo Bosi. In this arc that links Andrade to Bosi, the role the popular subject plays in their imagination of Brazil is visible. The analysis of this role enables us to revisit old topics in the light of contemporary contexts. After all, in contemporary Brazil, whatever can be identified as popular potency is the object of desire and fear, as though people, as a category, were an instance in dispute on which as many hopes as doubts are placed.