Euclides e a literatura: comentários sobre a moldura de Os Sertões

Abstract

Traditionally Os Sertões has always been described as a "hybrid" book, in which Euclides da Cunha intended to associate science with art, but this statement has been contested by recent studies. Luiz Costa Lima claims that literary speech in Os Sertões merely plays an auxiliary and ornamental role compared to the author's main purpose, which was to undertake a scientific analysis of the conflict held in Canudos according to nineteenth-century scientism. The present article argues that in Euclides da Cunha's work literary and scientific speeches are not opposite, but represent two complementary ways of knowing reality.