O que podem as perguntas? Uma incursão por entre desterritorializações e reterritorializações no Livro das Perguntas, de Pablo Neruda

Abstract

In this thesis – which is theoretical, problematizing, and rooted in poetic experimentation – I explore the power of the act of questioning as a force capable of shifting thought and producing new ways of understanding and experiencing the deterritorialization and reterritorialization of the self amidst the becomings of doctoral student, professional, and human being. I begin with the central inquiry driving this research: “What can questions do?” I take the Book of Questions (Neruda, 2008) as my corpus and seek to understand how the poetic inquiries within the work trigger movements of deterritorialization, opening up new territories of thought and meaning. My general objective is to investigate how Neruda’s questions provoke deterritorialization; rather than seeking conclusive answers, they establish paths of thought that incite shifts, multiplicities, and becomings, thereby empowering the experimentation of learning and creation. To support my investigation, I primarily draw upon the Philosophy of Difference developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari; concepts such as rhizome, multiplicity, territory, deterritorialization, reterritorialization, lines of flight, and becoming form the theoretical axis guiding my readings and interpretations. My research employs a qualitative, bibliographic approach integrated with the process of cartography – understood here as a map in motion that tracks the encounters, affects, and forces emerging from contact with the corpus. Along this path, I map selected questions from the book, engage in a dialogue with Isidro Ferrer’s illustrations inspired by the work, and consider reading experiments that reveal how these inquiries mobilize imagination, sensibility, and thought. The affects generated by the power of the question created fissures of becoming within me. When embraced as a creative act, the question ceases to be a mere tool for seeking answers and begins to function as a device for shifting thought, instigating movements of deterritorialization that enhance the experience of reading, knowledge acquisition, and personal formation. To question is a way of existing poetically in the world, for the question opens paths where previously there were only certainties, generates unexpected encounters, and inaugurates uncharted territories of thought and sensibility. Thus, my thesis posits the question as an inventive force capable of mobilizing learning processes, stimulating the imagination, and instigating modes of becoming that keep thought in constant motion.