The complex alliance between history and fiction found in Os sertões is examined from the perspective of new theories on the textuality of history and new methodologies in the study of literary texts, such as the so-called new historicism. After presenting a synthesis of these tools, the essay examines the construction of the narrative in Os sertões and shows how Cunha’s text is characterized by an inter-penetration of the system that informed the scientist with the system that governed the artist. As the intellectual and scientific framework imported from Europe proves inadequate in recording the Brazilian reality, Cunhas’ text begins slipping back and forth between history and fiction. In conclusion, it is argued that only in the interstices between history and fiction does Cunha manage to situate that truth which, starting right in his ‘Preliminary note’, he claimed as his prime objective.
textual aspects; fictional aspects; historical narrative; new historicism; sertão; backlands; Euclides da Cunha