A luta da terra nas literaturas portuguesa e brasileira: a linha marcada no chão que une José Saramago e Euclides da Cunha

Abstract

Two novels written in different countries and in different historical contexts depict the situation in the countryside throughout time in Brazil and Portugal. The process of the gathering of men around a common trait the opportunity of survival on land through the job guarantee also becomes the struggle against alienation and, afterwards, against the armed force that protect both the State and the landowner. The issues that spin around the land transcend the commonly telluric characteristic once this is also a character effectively active in the life of countrymen. Moreover, such man is also a multiple character, which is represented by the backland man from Bahia and the countryman from Alentejo: they keep in themselves the frailty of the body that, fairly enough, turns into their greatest strength. Te movement towards the struggle changes men and land, it changes History. This is the process observed and depicted by Euclides da Cunha in Os sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands) and by José Saramago in Levantado do Chão (Raised from the Ground). The Canudos campaign and the struggles towards the right to work in Portuguese country lands are side by side for both represent, under the perspective of these novels (and novelists ) narrators, an analysis on the injustices promoted by the power of the State against those who do not own anything, and their standing for their rights, for the change of the state-of-things