This analysis of the discursive ontology of Os sertões is particularly concerned with the book’s imaginary and literary narratives. Cunha’s main work combines at least two discursive styles: the discourse of the sciences and the discourse that characterizes narratives dealing with imaginary and literary realities. Selected excerpts show how the hybrid construction of Os sertões relies on elements which may belong to the realm of either fiction or historiography. Based on the ideas of Hayden White, the article detects three ways in which Os sertões interprets the history of Canudos: argumentative, explanatory, and ideological. The text ends with a brief comparison of the narration and sequencing of facts in Vargas Llosa’s La guerra del fin del mundo and Cunha’s Os sertões.
Euclides da Cunha; Os sertões; rebellion in the backlands; literary criticism; Brazilian literature; Canudos, Mario Vargas Llosa; La guerra del fin del mundo; The war of the end of the world