TY - JOUR T1 - When Paths Cross JF - Luso-Brazilian Review JO - Luso-Braz Rev SP - 85 LP - 102 DO - 10.3368/lbr.55.1.85 VL - 55 IS - 1 AU - Poema Quesado Valente Meyer Y1 - 2018/06/01 UR - http://lbr.uwpress.org/content/55/1/85.abstract N2 - This article compares the figure of the sertanejo in Graciliano Ramos’s novel, Vidas secas (1938), and one of Euclides da Cunha’s essays on the Brazilian Amazon, “Judas Ahasverus” (1909), via the analysis of his body in conflict as a trope that mimics the national modern crisis that extends in time and space. Although these particular texts have never been placed into dialogue with each other, parallels between Vidas secas and da Cunha’s earlier work, Os sertões (1902), have already been drawn by critics such as Antonio Candido and Leopoldo Bernucci. However, da Cunha’s essays on the Amazon, such as “Judas Ahasverus,” are in themselves considered to be a sequel of Os sertões. Therefore, this article broadens the existing dialogue between da Cunha’s narratives and Vidas secas, exploring not only how these literary paths cross through the image of the sertanejo, but how this body in conflict furthers our understanding of modernity in Brazil. ER -