War and aquatic imaginaries in Euclides da Cunha

Abstract

This article discusses the relations between water, infrastructure and war in the work of the Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha, with a particular emphasis on his Amazonian writings. The article argues that both water and war are key elements throughout Euclides’s work. Thus, it proposes that Rebellion in the Backlands [Os sertões] is not a book that deals solely with the Canudos War or about the Northeastern region known as the sertão, but that the aquatic imaginary plays a key role in it as well. Similarly, I argue that À margem da história [At the Margins of History] (1909) is not just about the rivers of the Amazon region, but that in the essays gathered in the book the notion of war adopts a key role. The article studies the multiple; though interconnected - meanings of the notion of war in these essays and shows how this presence grows throughout the different texts up to a point when Euclides seems to announce an imminent international conflict. In order to better highlight the importance of war and water in Os sertões and À margem da história, the article contrasts specific passages from both books; in this way, the strong continuities between the images used to narrate the sertão and those that appear in the description of the Amazon become clear. Finally, the article closes with the study of Euclides’s infrastructure projects regarding the construction of a railway and the use of paths known as “varadouros” to connect the various rivers of the Acre region, which complicate mobility, according to the engineer. I also discuss how Euclides reflects on the ways in which the river and the train could contribute to better wage war against the neighbouring countries.