From Ideogram to Montage: Eisenstein and Brazilian Concrete Poetry

This paper examines the relevance of the Japanese writing system known as ideogram in the elaboration of the theory of film of Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, especially in his understanding of montage as the filmic principle, par excellence. It will then consider how Eisenstein’s ideas on the ideogram and montage were incorporated decades later by the Brazilian concrete avant-garde, and how it became seminal in their first manifestos. The concrete poets merged Eisenstein’s reflections with that of the American scholar Ernest Fenollosa, whom they read via Ezra Pound, to elaborate their own theory.