Sovereign Exception and Grievability in Euclides da Cunha’s Os sertões

Abstract

Newspaper coverage of the Canudos War dehumanized the sertanejos, portraying them in such a way that empathy or grief for their suffering was inaccessible to the Brazilian readership. Euclides da Cunha, a war correspondent for the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, was amongst those who contributed to the state’s war narrative that represented the sertanejos as an inhuman mass and glorified the republican soldiers as heroes. However, in retrospect to the war, Euclides writes his Os sertoes, undermining much of the journalistic rhetoric established during the war by exposing the republican soldiers’ cruel acts of violence and condemning the war as illegal. In effect, he inadvertently elevates the sertanejo to the level of a perceivable individual whose death can be mourned. This article juxtaposes a reading of newspaper coverage of the Canudos conflict with Euclides’ account in Os sertoes. In doing so, this article elucidates the relationship between life and suspended law, ultimately providing a biopolitical reading of these texts.