Reseña del libro de Susanna B. Hecht, The Scramble for the Amazon and the "Lost Paradise" of Euclides da Cunha. University of Chicago Press, 2013 / Book: hecht, Susanna B. The scramble for the amazon and the "lost paradise" of Euclides da Cunha...

Resumo

Trabalho enviado em 17 de julho de 2016. Aceito em 17 de julho de 2016.

DOI: 10.12957/rqi.2016.18470

Resumen

El penúltimo libro de la geógrafa estadounidense Susanna Hecht, “The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha” (La contienda por la Amazonía y el paraíso perdido de Euclides da Cunha), tiene una estructura compleja, como la de aquellas películas que hilvanan varias historias y revelan al final información crítica que trastoca por completo el significado del texto, obliga a rebobinarlo y releerlo. Luego de 484 páginas de intensa lectura, Hecht nos deja saber que su intención principal era traducir a da Cunha, el reconocido autor brasileño, cuyo Os Sertões se consagró como la Ilíada de la naciente república, con su recuento poscolonial de la batalla de Canudos y el reconocimiento (novedoso en ese entonces) del mestizaje como el “cimiento de nuestra raza”

Abstract

The penultimate book of the American geographer Susanna Hecht, "The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha" (The race for the Amazon and the lost paradise of Euclides da Cunha), has a complex structure, such as those films that weave several stories and reveal critical information and at the end completely subverts the meaning of the text, requires rewinding and re-read. After 484 pages of intense reading, Hecht lets us know that her main intention was to translate da Cunha, the renowned Brazilian author, whose Os Sertões was consecrated as the Iliad of the nascent republic, with its postcolonial account of the battle of Canudos and recognition (new at the time) of miscegenation as the "foundation of our race."

Keywords: Os Sertões; Euclides da Cunha; Lost paradise; Mestizage; Race