Residual metaphors: notes for a comparative reading between Ponge and Bertoni

Abstract

This essay proposes a c omparative reading of the poetic works of Francis Ponge (1899-1988) and Claudio Bertoni (1946), exploring their similarities, differences, and connections with the behavior of dung beetles. The attention given to this species, both in mythical discourse and in entomology, when applied to the work of Ponge and Bertoni, reveals a series of convergences in their poetics. Thus, in light of dung beetles, Ponge a nd Bertoni seem to establish a h itherto secret brotherhood with these animals based on their “positive” relationship with entities that are socially conceived as waste, garbage, and/or excrement.