O HOMEM “À MARGEM DA HISTÓRIA” POR EUCLIDES DA CUNHA

Abstract

The reading of  Euclides da Cunha´s Nas Margens da História (On the margins of History") has always been  an invitation for  us to reflect on how the writer constructed the view of the Amazon man within his adventure in our great Brazilian plains, particularly in the state of  Acre. In this study we explore the shape and meaning of the rubber-tapper´s identity based on Da Cunha´s work. Our analysis is based on literary, scientific, political and aesthetic aspects which may help reveal the similarities between the author and other co-existing human present in his work, the sertanejo or backcountry man. Thus, we intend to demonstrate in this paper that there was, based according to Euclides da Cunha, an evident interest in the Amazon rubber tapper in the early twentieth century. Besides, we propose to reveal a result of the author’s encounter with the "desert" with the "distant” place.